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LONDON ASSEMBLY LIBERAL DEMOCRAT BRIEFING NOTE
4.1 REGENERATING THE THAMES GATEWAY
Thames Gateway is the name given to the stretch of land that starts at Canary Warf and spans both sides of the Thames, reaching down the estuary as far as Southend on the Essex side and Sittingbourne on the Kent side. The Government and the Mayor of London have identified the Gateway as the biggest regeneration priority in the country. In fact, the area forms the largest regeneration project in Europe. Within the GLA boundaries alone, the area has 1,000 hectares of land available for development, with the potential to provide over 142,000 new homes and create 255,000 new jobs by 2016.
Why Develop the Thames Gateway?
The one thing that the Gateway has, and that London needs, is space. The London Plan estimates that by 2016 the population of London will have increased by approximately 700,000. Over the same period, 636,000 jobs are expected to be created in the capital. When this additional growth is combined with existing need - London's affordable housing crisis is the result of a massive shortfall in the supply of housing - it is estimated that the demand for residential property alone stands at 31,900 homes per year. All of this growth needs to be accommodated, and the Thames Gateway offers the opportunity to do just that.
But the Gateway is not just a blank canvas waiting to be filled in. East London is home to two million people, a large proportion of whom are in the Thames Gateway area. The area has 58 wards classified as amongst the 20% most deprived in the country. The challenge facing the area is not just to build new sustainable communities, but also to regenerate those that already exist.
The Players
Not surprisingly for an area of its size there are a large number of parties involved in the development of the Gateway. At the highest level, the Thames Gateway Strategic Partnership (TGSP) was formed two years ago in recognition of the need to take a strategic approach to development in the region. It covers the entire Thames Gateway area, and is chaired by Lord Rooker, Minister for Housing, Planning and Regeneration, and constituted by government Ministers, Regional Development Agencies and Regional Assemblies for London, the East of England, and South East England, and sub-regional partnerships. Through working groups, the partnership claims to incorporate the views of the private sector and community groups.
At the next layer down, the Thames Gateway is covered by three strategic partnerships, one for London, one for North Kent, and one for South Essex. Thames Gateway London Partnership (TGLP) was formed in the lead up to the Communities Plan (see below for more information). The partnership is a sub-regional alliance of 13 local authorities, five universities, the Learning and Skills Council London East and the London Development Agency. It works with the private sector, local communities and strategic agencies to deliver regeneration in the London section of the Gateway.
Below this level there are a multitude of other bodies working both within and outside partnerships, ranging from London Boroughs to local interest groups.
Current Activity and Latest Developments
The Draft London Plan singles out the Gateway as the priority area for development in London. In 2003/04 the London Development Agency is investing approximately £300m in the area.
The Deputy Prime Minister's Communities Plan identified the Thames Gateway as one of four key areas to undergo a programme of accelerated development
The Plan includes £446m over three years for the area, to be invested in land assembly, site preparation, affordable and key worker housing, and urban renaissance
In the short term, 14 zones of change have been identified as key locations for action in the Gateway. TGSP has agreed working frameworks for each of the zones and specific actions are being considered to take them forward.
`Partnership' Development Corporation: the government believes that a special vehicle is needed to address cross borough issues and manage liaison with the different landowners across the area. The PDC was announced in February, will be accountable to the Secretary of State and will be targeted to achieve delivery on specific sites - the Lower Lee Valley, Barking Riverside and Woolwich. The PDC is a variation on an `urban development corporation', a body with special development powers, most famously used to develop Canary Wharf.
The rising importance of the Thames Gateway on the government's agenda is reflected in a new ministerial committee, chaired by the Prime Minister, which is due to consider the requirements and funding implications for major infrastructure in the Gateway. Conclusions are expected in May.
Key Issues
The grand plans and massive figures bandied about when discussing the Thames Gateway mask a much more complex and considerably less clear reality. The Gateway represents an excellent opportunity for regeneration and expansion, but significant barriers must first be overcome:
Size and complexity: The development of the Gateway cuts across a host of boundaries, both in terms of geography and issues. Not only does the gateway span many wards, boroughs and even counties, but it also calls for the involvement of public and private bodies from the fields of housing, transport, health, education, employment, and skills. Co-ordination across these many parts represents a massive challenge, and one that has only just begun to be addressed.
Funding: There are reasons why the Gateway has not prospered over the last half century, and many relate to basic geography, poor infrastructure and public services. To overcome these problems and achieve development on the scale envisaged in the Thames Gateway requires enormous amounts of investment, from both the public and private sectors.
Sustainability: Development, and the funding that backs it, needs to be significant, sustained, environmentally sound, and co-ordinated. In order to prosper, new communities need to be good quality, and balanced. For example, the Communities Plan provides some additional funding for housing, but has been criticised for failing to provide information on the schools, hospitals, roads, etc, that are necessary to turn new housing developments into functioning communities.
Devolution/Democratic involvement: By retaining control of the Partnership Development Corporation the government has deliberately refused to devolve power to democratic London-wide bodies such as the Greater London Authority. Additionally, the use of centrally controlled bodies creates the danger that local groups will be excluded from the process, creating a democratic deficit, and endangering the local involvement that is crucial in making regeneration projects a success.
Olympics: Any London bid for the 2012 Olympics would be centred around the inner Thames Gateway. The Olympics could provide a powerful stimulus to development in the area, and focus the government's minds on the need for improved infrastructure. Additionally, the legacy of an Olympiad could provide superb sporting facilities for the gateway, as well as extra tourism, business development and so on. The government is expected to decide on whether to bid for the 2012 Olympics in May 2003.
Transport: Perhaps the key issue for the area. The Gateway's relative inaccessibility has been a crucial factor in its failure to grow and develop. In the short term, a range of important but relatively small scale transport improvements have been approved, such as the extension of the Docklands Light Railway to serve City Airport. On the medium scale, there are also provisional plans to develop a Thames Gateway Bridge, and extend the Docklands Light Railway to Barking, amongst others. In the long term, growth in the Gateway will hinge on major transport projects such as CrossRail. The government were expected to make an announcement on CrossRail this month, but now look unlikely to do so. Many of these plans are controversial, and all are expensive, but what is clear is that the Thames Gateway needs an efficient, well designed and comprehensive transport network to make its regeneration and growth a reality.
LIBERAL DEMOCRAT LINE:
We agree that Thames Gateway has terrific development potential, vital to London's expansion and continued vitality. But there's a huge gap between that vision and what's likely to happen if those responsible don't rise to the challenge of meeting the key issues we've identified above. As ever, central government does not trust the boroughs and indeed the Mayor himself to get the job done. The UDC mechanism, answerable to government, will sap authority locally and further confuse the complex administrative picture.
Liberal Democrats see the Thames Gateway as a unique opportunity to create a different sort of urban living, one that is sustainable and balanced, not based on the car, miles from decent schools and hospitals and dependent on out-of-town support malls. Above all, and unlike Docklands in the 1980s, we want those already living locally to be fully involved in deciding developments for what are, after all, their own homes and neighbourhoods.
Maps of the area can be found at: http://www.planning.odpm.gov.uk/thamesgateway/03.htm
Figures from The Draft London Plan, 2002, GLA Publications
Index of deprivation, 2000, ODPM
08/03/2007