1. RSA governing met regions… 2012 Community inputs to London Planning Michael Edwards m.edwards@ucl.ac.uk Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning, UCL michaeledwards.org.uk

2. Community input valuable as… Telling alternative narrative(s) Not letting neo-liberal policy go unchallenged Trying to keep citizen voices in the debate against huge odds Secure actual changes in the plan

3. Telling alternative narrative and not letting neo-liberal policy go unchallenged Challenge (property) market dominance of discourse and policy (note weakness of other business representation in London) Strong emphasis on low- and middle-income Londoners, especially on housing Ostrich-like approach of the Plan to land and property markets as problems Strong community commitment to green issues; more progressive transport Regeneration – does it help or hurt the ‘deprived’ people in whose name it is done? Bottom up view pays attention to local and suburban jobs (gender dimension) Emphasis on local – e.g. on shopping, markets, public services, lifetime neighbourhoods (but not much space for alternatives to be debated in formal London Plan process)

4. Trying to keep citizen voices against huge odds Mayoral system not at all good for democracy Assembly weak (¿partly self-imposed weakness) Overwhelming role of property sector –(the state is notworking well as the “executive committee of the whole bourgeoisie” - Marx) Borough council interactions with GLA hidden Weak organisation of loser-groups, no worker or TU inputs; private tenants and excluded owner-occupiers un-represented Under-resourced participation process (but >50 groups spoke up at EiP, many to great effect)

5. Secure actual changes in the plan Some modest gains on non-fundamental issues (Peter Eversden of LFCAS spoke more on this in the following contribution.)

6. sources / further material Mayor of London, all documents at www.london.gov.ukwww.london.gov.uk http://justspace2010.wordpress.com for challenges to London Planhttp://justspace2010.wordpress.com Michael Edwards (2010 October) Do Londoners make their own plan? in K Scanlon and B Kochan (eds) London after Labour, LSE London Series, chapter 8. Eprint http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/20241/http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/20241/ Edwards, M (2011) London for sale: towards the radical marketization of urban space, in Matthew Gandy (ed) Urban Constellations, Berlin, Jovis. [ E-print here: edwards-constellations-20110705 ] D. Massey 2007 The World we're in: interview with Ken Livingstone, Soundings, 36, http://www.lwbooks.co.uk/journals/articles/keninterview.htmlhttp://www.lwbooks.co.uk/journals/articles/keninterview.html _____ (2007) World City, Cambridge, Polity Press Edwards on rent theory: http://michaeledwards.org.uk/?p=972