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Camden: Council appoints contractor to re-clad Chalcots estate evacuated over Grenfell fears

Decision is the next step in a long process to put the Swiss Cottage blocks right
Dave Hill

Major repair work will begin later this year on five Camden housing blocks that were evacuated in June 2017 after the council discovered that cladding attached to them was similar to that which went up in flames on Grenfell Tower.

Camden Council leader Georgia Gould has approved Wates Living Space as the contractor to replace the cladding, which had been installed between 2006 and 2009, with the most fireproof available and also to replace the windows and curtain walls of the Chalcots estate in Swiss Cottage, which needed replacing.

Camden has secured £80.6 million from the government’s cladding remediation fund, set up last July, to pay for the removal and replacement of unsafe aluminium composite material (ACM) on council and housing association social housing buildings. It will provide £26.2 million itself. The work is expected to last three months.

Gould received some criticism for deciding to urge the roughly 3,000 residents to leave the approximately 700 dwellings, including from some residents themselves who accused her of over-reacting. However, she was also praised for acting bravely when made aware of the potential fire risk and being visible on the scene and prepared to explain her actions directly to those affected, some of whom were angry or distressed.

The vast majority of Chalcots residents were temporarily housed in private rented accommodation or hotels for a few weeks until the flammable cladding was removed, though a small number, some of them too infirm to go elsewhere, remained in their dwellings throughout. The fire brigade did not formally close the building, which meant that, in any case, no one could be forced to leave. Residents began moving back from mid-July 2017, though it was reported that over 100 refused to do so at that time, fearing that the buildings were still not safe.

A council spokesperson said, “The driving force throughout this process has been to deliver the highest possible standard of safety for Chalcots residents, and, by the time this work is done, they will have the best possible protection through a complete A1 fire rated system, which we will submit for full-scale independent testing”. The council adds that it has “always acted quickly within the correct procedures” to remove the ACM cladding promptly and has also carried out “extensive safety work on the interior of the buildings”.

In May 2018, Camden brought maintenance of the Chalcots in-house after the consortium that had been contracted to do the job went bust. The council says it intends to see through the final stages of terminating the agreement as part of getting “the best possible deal” for residents.  The previous November the council had ceased paying the company, which it was in dispute with over who was responsible for the problems with the blocks.

Last October, Camden said it intended to sue a group of companies responsible for the refurbishment work that saw the ACM cladding installed with a view to recovering some of the costs it incurred due to the evacuation and has confirmed that that remains its position.

 

 

Categories: News
Tags: Camden Council, Chalcots estate, Georgia Gould, Grenfell Tower, Swiss Cottage

Regeneration should seek to connect London communities better, says new report

Future of London network highlights need to overcome physical and institutional barriers
Dave Hill

Regeneration and new infrastructure projects in London should be seen as opportunities to “stitch communities back together” rather than compounding existing barriers between them, according to research involving hundreds of urban development experts from the capital’s public, private and third sectors.

Overcoming London’s Barriers, a 35-page report produced by practitioners’ network Future of London, looks at both physical and administrative impediments to London neighbourhoods being being improved effectively, be they hostile roads, poor walkways and impermeable buildings, or the differing objectives of next door local authorities and other governance bodies.

Croydon is characterised as a “classic example” of how post-war development priorities have ended up limiting people’s ability to move around the area and deterred investment. Recent attempts to overcome problems created by its fast roads, subways and impassable office blocks include a new pedestrian footbridge at East Croydon station, still under construction, to improve pedestrian “connectivity”.

Another case study looks at ongoing moves to link up Lewisham town centre, including the replacement of a roundabout and plans to create easier access to it for communities to its west confronted by a wide street, a shopping centre facade, a railway viaduct and the River Ravensbourne. The crowdfunded Peckham Coal Line project, which aims to create a walking and cycling link between Rye Lane and Queens Road and has been incorporated into Southwark’s local plan, is also highlighted.

The Finsbury Park area, which falls into three different boroughs – Islington, Haringey and Hackney – and, because of Finsbury Park station, is also of importance to Transport for London Network Nail, is picked out as an example of the challenges and successes of multi agency forums seeking common ground and co-operation. Traders from the area’s different commercial districts are involved in a multi-borough Town Centre Management Group which “aims to co-ordinate activity and prevent duplication of initiatives,” says the report. “Area-wide working” in the very different context of the Wandle Valley is also covered.

The report’s recommendations include seeking a fuller understand of the sometimes intangible influence of barriers, building partnerships between overlapping and potentially rivalrous governance bodies and interest groups, supporting good local initiatives and communicating the benefits of “success stories” well.

Read the full Overcoming London’s Barriers report via the Future of London website.

 

 

Categories: News
Tags: Croydon, Finsbury Park, Future of London, Hackney Council, Haringey Council, Islington Council, Lewisham, Peckham, River Wandle, Rye Lane, Southwark, Transport for London

It is the year 2000. Will the London mayoralty catch on?

An edition of current affairs show The London Programme caught the sense of anticipation before the capital's first mayoral election
Dave Hill

Boringly, the 2020 London Mayor election campaign is already unofficially underway. At least it underlines that the mayoralty has established itself as a London institution that matters. That was not a certainty when the first mayoral election approached back in 2000, a product of the first Tony Blair government’s devolution reforms. But, as the edition of the now defunct London Programme embedded below shows, there was plenty of excited anticipation in the months approaching it.

Jeffrey Archer had been frontrunner to be the Tory candidate before coming badly unstuck. Step forward, On London contributor Steve Norris. When the programme went out three months before Londoners went to the polls, there was a three-way tussle to become Labour’s candidate between Glenda Jackson, Frank Dobson and Ken Livingstone, who Blair loathed. Dobson came out on top, Livingstone ran as an independent and you know what happened next.

The programme features comment from journalists Simon Jenkins and the late Simon Hoggart and from Professor Tony Travers. It captures Livingstone in his prime, a “loony left” hate figure rehabilitated as a cheeky chappie iconoclast. “Very London,” as Jenkins puts it. The late Malcolm McLaren is in the mix too. It lasts for 25 minutes. Don’t let the trailer for Taggart at the beginning confuse you. Or the use of the theme music from Reservoir Dogs.

Footnotes: The letter to Labour members from Tony Blair was received by wife, a party member at that time. I couldn’t believe how unsubtle the “vote Frank” message was. The Evening Standard front page article briefly shown was by Patrick Hennessy, who is now Mayor Khan’s director of communications. The result of the inaugural London Mayor election is here.

Categories: Culture
Tags: Evening Standard, Frank Dobson, Glenda Jackson, Ken Livingstone, Patrick Hennessy, Sadiq Khan, Steve Norris, Tony Blair, Tony Travers

How will Transport for London make ends meet and still keep doing its job?

The pressures on the transport body's functions and project programme were explored by members of the London Assembly
Dave Hill

The delay to the opening of Crossrail has piled further pressure on Transport for London’s budgets, requiring its number crunchers to make adjustments for the non-appearance of a big new money stream – fares from the Elizabeth Line – they had hoped would begin flowing from before Christmas. How will this setback affect TfL’s ability to do its job?

The question was at the heart of Monday’s gathering of the London Assembly budget and performance committee, which is chaired by Gareth Bacon, leader of the Assembly’s Conservative Group and one of its most effective interrogators. The committee’s guests included TfL commissioner Mike Brown, deputy mayor for transport Heidi Alexander and TfL’s chief financial officer Simon Kilonback.

This low profile gathering of some big league London governance players was enlightening in several ways, not least for providing a fuller picture of how TfL intends to keep performing its basic functions and deliver large components of Sadiq Khan’s transport strategy. The transport body has stated publicly that the latter hasn’t become any easier, due largely to a combination of  disappearing government funding and slowdowns in public transport demand.

A delivery timetable was set out for the committee in a presentation by Kilonbach. The relevant page is reproduced below. The first phase of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) will be the headline-grabber of the 2019/20 financial year. It is to start on 8 April, levying an additional £12.50 on the most polluting vehicles entering the congestion charge zone in Central London and forecast to affect up to 60,000 of them every day.

The Northern Line extension, bringing the Tube into the huge Vauxhall, Nine Elms, Battersea regeneration area with new stations at Nine Elms and Battersea Power station from Kennington, is, the committee was assured, on track to open in 2020. After that – and after the next mayoral election – the long-awaited extension of the London Overground from Barking station to the huge Barking Riverside development should be complete and running services in 2021, with construction starting soon. The upgrade of Bank Underground station is timetabled for completion in 2022/23, and the Elephant & Castle’s – financially enabled by the redevelopment of the Elephant’s shopping centre – in 2023/24. Holborn’s is lined up to begin in the same year.

Screen shot 2019 01 08 at 18.28.29

Then there’s a list if items somewhat enigmatically headed “Ongoing”. It includes the planned new pedestrian and cycling bridge across the Thames between Rotherhithe and Canary Wharf, a project explicitly mentioned in Candidate Khan’s 2016 manifesto. Caroline Pidgeon, the Liberal Democrat who chairs the Assembly’s transport committee, asked about this, recalling a hoped-for completion date of 2024. Kilonback said that money for the project is “fully provided” in the latest TfL business plan and that it is “very much on”.

The detail of “ongoing” also interested Len Duvall, the experienced Labour Group leader. Kilonback’s presentation had put projects of into four categories: critical, which covers maintaining current safety levels across the networks; central, defined as “projects most aligned to mayoral and mayors transport strategy outcomes”; desirable, which covers “projects contingent on funding availability”; and deprioritise, which, in plain language, are things that can be put off or effectively dumped.

“Do we need a new category for projects that are very much ready to go but there’s no money for them?” Duvall inquired. He had particularly in mind the extension of the Bakerloo Line south of Elephant & Castle. This was designated by Kilonback as needing funding from the government. The same goes for new Piccadilly Line signalling and Crossrail 2 (which former transport minister Steve Norris believes needs a rethink). Of the Bakerloo, Duvall said: “In reality, it’s not going to be a year late, or two years, it is stopped.”

He praised TfL for its quick recalibration after the Crossrail blow – though it’s worth stressing in passing that this had been a well-flagged possibility many months ago – and for its clarity, but maybe a little further frankness was required. Might the same apply to the Silvertown Tunnel? The upgrade of Camden Town Underground station? “You’re telling me it’s live, but from the information we’ve gleaned from the various bits of paper, you’ve cancelled it.”

Brown acknowledged that, “It’s not where we’d want it to be in an ideal world”. The problem, surprise surprise, is money: TfL itself will have to put some in, but they also need “a third party contribution,” which means cash from a property developer as part of securing permission to build housing on the site. That is being discussed, Brown said. But Duvall went on to put his finger on a tension between the Mayor’s requirement that 50 percent of homes built on TfL land overall be “genuinely affordable” and TfL’s need for money for transport infrastructure: basically, the more the developer contributes to housing affordability, the less there is likely to be for upgrading an often very overcrowded Tube station.

Brown said, in effect, that this circle can be squared. But the exchange illustrated well the significant and growing dependence of TfL, a public body, on the private property sector to finance the public transport London needs.

A broader picture of the financial landscape was painted by Heidi Alexander, who is proving to be an impressive successor to Val Shawcross. “The biggest risk to TfL’s business planning is a catastrophic ‘no deal’ Brexit,” she said. “In my six months in this position the work that has been done and demonstrated to me in making savings gives me confidence in the ability of the organisation to reduce costs and still deliver a high quality public transport service to people. But there are a whole range of external factors that could impact.”

We might take those to include the government’s next comprehensive spending review, due later this year. Who knows what its attitude to London and its transport needs will be? Who knows anything at all about what tomorrow might bring?

Watch the whole of Monday 7 January’s budget and performance committee meeting via here. Simon Kilonback’s presentation materials are available via here where there is a link to TfL Business Plan – Presentation.

Categories: Analysis
Tags: Bakerloo Line, Brexit, buses, Canary Wharf, Caroline Pidgeon, Conservatives, Crossrail, Crossrail 2, Elephant & Castle, Gareth Bacon, Heidi Alexander, Labour, Len Duvall, Liberal Democrats, London Underground, Mike Brown, public transport, Rotherhithe, Sadiq Khan, Silvertown Tunnel, Simon Kilonback, Steve Norris, transport, Transport for London

London business confidence falling as Brexit date nears, new survey finds

London Chamber of Commerce and Industry calls on mayor and government to help small and medium-sized firms
Dave Hill

Confidence in London’s economy within its business community is falling as Brexit approaches, according to new research for the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The latest quarterly economic survey for the Chamber by pollsters ComRes, drawing on responses from over 500 London businesses, found a decrease in all “confidence indicators” in the fourth quarter of 2018 and that expectations for the capital’s and the UK’s economy are at their lowest since the start of 2016.

The percentage of companies saying they are looking to recruit also fell, to just 12 per cent, the second lowest yet recorded, and 61 per cent said they are operating below full capacity. Answers to questions about cashflow and investment also revealed anxiety about the future.

Responding to the findings, the Chamber’s chief executive, Colin Stanbridge, said, “It is staggering that we are now weeks away from leaving the European Union and businesses still don’t know the terms of that departure and what preparations they require.”

Stanbridge called on the government to “urgently provide” more support and encouragement for small and medium-sized companies in particular and urged the principal candidates for the London mayoralty to “pursue an agenda of greater devolution to London” so that City Hall can do more to “drive and deliver future growth”.

In the light of the latest findings the Chamber recommends that London government should have greater powers to accommodate forecast population growth and retain more of the tax generated by the city in order to do so.

More specifically, it urges the London Mayor to look into compiling a “shortage occupation list” to help businesses find the worker they need, to liaise with business groups to “create a post-Brexit on-stop shop resource” at City Hall, and to look into exempting business and workspace from controversial permitted development rights in “areas of strategic importance to the economy”.

The Capital 500 results are published as financial services company EY reports that 20 City firms have announced plans to transfer assets out the London before 29 March, when the UK is scheduled to leave the European Union and that the number do so could be higher.

However, a report published last month by analysts Oxford Economics forecast that the capital’s economy will gather pace this year following a “lacklustre” 2018, despite “very weak” business confidence caused by Brexit an the broader political situation.

       

 

 

 

 

 

Categories: News
Tags: Brexit, Colin Stanbridge, ComRes, London Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Oxford Economics, Sadiq Khan

Bromley: Ofsted finds ‘rapid and sustained’ improvement in borough’s children’s services

Grades have risen to an overall "good" having formerly been judged inadequate
Dave Hill

Bromley’s children’s services have been judged “good” with “outstanding’ leadership by education watchdog Ofsted, having been deemed inadequate only two years ago.

An inspection conducted in the last weeks of November concluded that “a new and highly experienced leadership team” has “driven a rapid and sustained pace of improvement, supported by a whole-council investment in children’s services”.

A previous Ofsted inspection in spring 2016 had graded the borough’s children’s services “inadequate” across the board, prompting the Department for Education to commission an independent report on how to turn the situation round.

A new deputy chief executive, Ade Adetosoye, was appointed by Bromley in September 2016 and also made executive director of education, care and health, having previously held a similar post at the City of London Corporation. In the video below, from May 2018, he talks about the borough’s progress at that stage.

The new Ofsted report commends “the vision, commitment and determination of senior leaders,” saying that “effective action has been taken concurrently across all areas of service” with “an unwavering focus on continuous improvement”. It added that a newly “outward-facing organisation” inspires its staff in “making a profound difference to improving the lives of children in Bromley”.

The “outstanding” rating given for the impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families was accompanied by grades of “good” for the experiences and progress of children who need care and protection and for those in care or who have left care. “Overall effectiveness” of the social care services was also judged to be good.

The councils executive member for children and families, Councillor Peter Fortune, said he was “extremely proud” of the achievement and praised the leadership of Adetosoye, who became the borough’s interim chief executive last month.

Among those congratulating Bromley is Ian Thomas, chief executive designate of Kingston upon Thames, who was recently awarded a CBE for his work in local government and children’s services following his success in transforming children’s in Rotherham.

 

 

 

 

 

Categories: News
Tags: Ade Adetosoye, Bromley, children, Ian Thomas, Kingston Council, Ofsted, Peter Fortune

Onkar Sahota: London’s mental health services are letting young people down

The capital's politicians need to take up this issue if our city is not to pay a heavy price
Onkar Sahota

New figures from the Children’s Commissioner for England paint a bleak picture for young people in London seeking access to mental health services. According to a briefing publishing in November, the five worst areas in the country are all in the capital. Sadly, these include Ealing and Hillingdon, the boroughs I represent on the London Assembly. And of 55 clinical commissioning groups across the country awarded less than half the maximum performance score, 11 are in Greater London. 

There is a lot of unmet need out there. When a young person is struggling, their GP or another health professional refers them to the specialist service. They should then be assessed and seen by a mental health professional. Yet at every stage, London’s young people are being let down.

Health services are supposed to be open so that they help young people before they hit a crisis. However, only 2.5 per cent of young people in London are in touch with services, which is lower than the English average. Those who do get in touch are too often turned away. One in three youngsters have their case closed before treatment. Whilst some of those will recover or be better off in another service, it is beyond belief to think that a third of the young people who make it to a referral are not sick enough to warrant treatment. This is purely and simply the rationing of our mental health services.

If a young person makes it to the end of the obstacle course and gets accepted into treatment, what awaits them then? A long delay. Less than one in five are referred and treated within six weeks. Nearly a third of young people currently referred into treatment in London are stuck somewhere beyond a three month wait.

Not only is London generally poor at serving young people with mental health problems, there are also inequalities between boroughs too. Let us not forget the bright spots – Tower Hamlets, Camden, and Kensington & Chelsea are all showing the way with decent investment, scale and speed. But on the other side, Westminster spends just £15 per young person. Islington sees an admirable number of young people but it doesn’t have the investment to match, resulting in waiting times averaging 117 days. And three in five young people in Bromley have been waiting more than three months for treatment.

Ten areas cut their child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) funding this year. Yet £1.7 billion more is needed each year just to reach the level of adult mental health services. The newly-publish NHS ten year plan says the budget for young people will rise faster than the rate of increase in the NHS or for general mental health services, but this is thin gruel, as there is no chance that more than two-thirds of the £2.3 billion extra allocated to mental health services will go to CAMHS. In the context of NHS spending still not keeping pace with need, CAMHS will continue to struggle.

Here at City Hall, the Mayor is putting his money where his mouth is. Thrive LDN is providing new opportunities for Londoners of all ages to learn about mental health. Mental health first aid training is coming to all schools in the city. And the new social prescribing vision will help people get well with activities in their community.

I for one will be banging the table with my local NHS leaders, telling them they need to follow the Mayor’s lead. I know they haven’t been given the funding they need by the government. But this poor performance is too serious to go on. If the government won’t fund CAMHS, we must start the change locally. This will never be enough, but it might help at least some young people to stay well. London politicians need to pick up this mission. If we don’t, the costs will be with us for decades.

Dr Onkar Sahota is a Labour member of the London Assembly, representing the Ealing & Hillingdon constituency.

Categories: Comment
Tags: Bromley, Camden, children, Ealing, health, Hillingdon, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea, NHS, Sadiq Khan, Tower Hamlets

Steve Norris: We need to think again about Crossrail 2

Might there better ways to strengthen London's rail infrastructure than this massive and flawed project that looks as if it might never happen?
Steve Norris

London’s population is growing faster than that of the rest of the country and is estimated to reach 9.5 million by 2026. More people means more pressure on connectivity – the capacity to get around the place – because cities only function as living, stable organisms when the people without jobs can get to the jobs without people.

London’s connectivity has improved substantially in recent years, with the extension of the Jubilee Line, the rebirth of the near defunct North London Line as one of the most reliable and well-loved on the network as part of London Overground, and, of course, there’s the imminent – although we’re not sure quite how imminent – arrival of the Elizabeth Line (Crossrail), which on its own will add some 10 per cent to London’s rail capacity. Next to emerge will be the extension of the Northern Line to Battersea Power Station, courtesy of a loop at Kennington.

But all this, welcome as it is, is not enough. Too many key central London stations now become so crowded that they have to be closed for several minutes at a time at peak hours simply on safety grounds, to prevent passengers being pushed onto live rails. One of the major proposals currently being worked up by Transport for London (TfL) with the support of the Department for Transport to address this capacity shortfall is the Chelsea-Hackney Line, dubbed Crossrail 2 by Ken Livingstone when he was Mayor in order to underline the need for a long term investment programme.  

The idea for a line between the north east and south west of the city was first conceived in 1904, but quashed by rival rail operators. It was revived as a serious project in 1970, and a “line of route” was safeguarded following a 1989 study. When Boris Johnson succeeded Livingstone at City Hall he alighted on Crossrail 2 as his great legacy masterwork, and invited former transport secretary Andrew Adonis to lead a study on cost and deliverability.

Adonis duly reported in 2013 on what is now the scheme being taken forward by TfL, led by Dr Michèle Dix. The assumption underlying the Adonis work was that the line of route represented the optimum befit to London, both in terms of connectivity and cost. But sadly, in reality the scheme as currently proposed achieves neither.

In May 2018 the team published its latest update on route options. This recognised some of the most egregious errors. Examples include recognising that taking the line from Victoria to Clapham Junction with a station in the Kings Road is not only unpopular with residents but, much more importantly, fails to identify a station which would create a minimum of 5,000 new jobs or at least an equivalent number of new homes, which are the preconditions for the location of any new station.

A better option is to take the line from Victoria to Battersea Power Station, linking it with the Northern Line extension and bringing it within easy reach of London Overground stations before proceeding to Clapham Junction. Thirty years ago, the power station was producing power. Now the area around Nine Elms is a major growth zone, both in terms of homes and jobs.

The line is currently planned to link to Balham station, in order to connect with the Overground and the Northern Line. The original plan was for the line to connect to Tooting Broadway instead – an area in significantly greater need of better connectivity.  The switch to Balham was apparently based on cost, although the calculations were never convincing. The move back to the Broadway makes much better sense and should have been acknowledged long ago.   

The proposed link to Wimbledon threatened to devastate the town centre rather than benefit it. It desperately needs a rethink. And, believe it or not, the scheme now proposes the closure of a number of level crossings both north and south of the central area. These, incredibly, were originally included in the scheme and you can imagine the impact this will have on local communities, given the need for road diversions. I could go on, but until TfL turns “reviewing” these and other examples into actually changing the line of route the scheme itself remains distinctly sub-optimal.

And then there is the cost. Despite all the recent revelations about its overruns and delays, the Elizabeth Line is scheduled to cost around £18 billion. The current estimate for Crossrail 2 is £30 billion, and that’s at 2014 prices. At today’s prices it is closer to £34 billion, or nearly twice as much as the Elizabeth Line. TfL blandly asserts that half this cost would be borne by London (it’s actually a precondition of Treasury approval), but the mechanisms employed by Mayor Livingstone – a levy on new construction and a business rate supplement – would have a devastating impact on both the delivery of new homes and, in particular, the viability of retail businesses at a time when both are massive priorities for London.

Edmund Burke ruefully asserted that, “To tax and to please, no more than to love and be wise, is not given to men”. He was right then and right now, but until the current Mayor and his team agree about how Londoners are to raise £17 billion, Crossrail 2 remains a project everyone supports because it’s “a good thing” without there being any chance whatever of it seeing the light of day.

My advice? Go back to the drawing board and take a fresh, hard look at what the connectivity priorities for the city over the next 50 years should be. Look at much more affordable improvements, such as the extension of the Bakerloo Line south from Elephant & Castle down the Old Kent Road to New Cross, which would unlock opportunities for homes and jobs in one of the most deprived areas of the city.  

Then look at whether a great new line really is the capital’s answer, or whether a series of less expensive incremental changes can address the challenge. And always bear in mind that, while London may well be the goose that lays the nation’s golden eggs, it needs to demonstrate more than ever why investment in the capital should trump investment elsewhere, in projects like the Northern Powerhouse.  The current verdict on Crossrail 2 has to be case not proven. Must try harder.

Steve Norris is a former Conservative London Mayor candidate and a former transport minister (1992-97). He was a member of the Transport for London board during the mayoralty of Boris Johnson and is a founding partner of Norris McDonough LLP.

Categories: Comment
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