Taking a break out of the seemingly endless election cycle, I attended a NLA event last week on 'Grappling with Growth'. The event was an intriguing dialogue between London's Deputy Mayor for Planning, Regeneration and Skills, Jules Pipe, and his counterpart in New York, Alicia Glen. It was an interesting eye opener and, to those of us who have become guilty of being too London (or U.K.) centric, it exposed the fact that our growth problems are not unique.

So, the annual jamboree that is MIPIM has been and gone, and thousands of middle-aged, sleep-deprived, vitamin deficient (mostly male) property professionals are trying to explain to their partners and accounts departments the irregular nature of their credit card receipts once again.

Which of our major cities has the greatest projected requirement to accommodate homes and jobs over the next 20 plus years? It will come as no great surprise that the answer is London.

Taking population growth as the principal driver, the Capital is required to accommodate twice as many people as presently reside in Manchester by 2024[1].

Yet, whereas Manchester has recently announced plans to release up to 4,900 hectares of Green Belt land to accommodate sustainable patterns of growth to sit alongside ambitious urban regeneration plans[2], London has resolutely refused to consider incursions into its hinterland. Why is that, and how can it be justified? The answer to the former is a mix of politics and due process. The answer to the latter is that it can – provided one backs the stick, rather than the carrot, approach to spatial planning.

There is presently much focus on the Northern Powerhouse and the ‘Midland Engine Room’, especially with the emergence of combined authorities for both Greater Manchester the West Midlands.

The continuing growth of Iceni Projects has included the recruitment of a number of planning consultants with extensive London project experience.  We are collectively now able to provide genuine knowledge and capability across each of the 32 London boroughs and the Corporation of London, together with strong working relations with the Greater London Authority.