Excerpt from the foreword
London’s boroughs are on the front line in ensuring that the capital’s citizens can enjoy full and rewarding lives. They reflect the variety and diversity of our great city – some, like Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea, include areas of great wealth as well as areas of deprivation. Others, like Barking and Dagenham, are still recovering from London’s industrial decline but whose lower land values now provide new opportunities for those pushed out of more central areas because of the high cost of housing and workspace.
The delivery of new housing is a key role for the boroughs and one that will be helped by the lifting of the borrowing cap in the Autumn Statement, while the growth of housing delivery vehicles within local authorities is an encouraging sign that public housing is once again being delivered by an energised public sector. Local infrastructure and the delivery of the Mayor’s excellent strategy for healthy streets also falls within the boroughs’ remit and is an area where greater application and more funding is needed. The completion of cycling quietways is slow and tortuous while key schemes for better conditions for pedestrians have been delayed.
London is a complex metropolis. The 33 very different local authorities not only provide the governance in their local neighbourhood, they also contribute to the variety that characterises the city. It is a misnomer to call London a city of villages – it is a city of towns and local centres that generate its polycentric plan and the communities that live in them.
Chapters
London’s Boroughs 2018: year review
- The wider picture
- National and regional policies and strategies
- Common issues and trends for London’s boroughs
London in numbers
Key figures on borough perspectives, growth in housing costs and targets, breakdown of population projections by area.
Areas in focus
Every borough presented with key strategies and focus. Highlighting regeneration and growth areas, parkland or metropolitan open land, community investment programmes, industrial land and upcoming infrastructure changes.
Pubications details
October 2018
88 Pages
ISBN 978-1-9993513-0-4