Planning took a back seat across the capital this month as local authorities awaited the outcome of the local elections.
London saw an array of smaller parties taking control and a large number of councils with no overall control. The Green Party saw wins in Hackney, Lewisham and Waltham Forest councils and Havering council became the first Reform run authority in the capital. The number of councils with no overall control is at its peak. While the south-west maintained its Lib Dem stronghold.
But what does this technicolour map mean for planning in the city? There will still be some delays and uncertainty whilst councils with no overall control work out arrangements, and by-elections continue into June. Planning committees are anticipated to return in June. For most applicants, there will be little impact, with the adopted planning policies providing a stable framework for decision-making amidst the changes.
Image credit: Russell Curtis, source: https://smallsites.london/Election2026.html
Some of the new administrations however have already started work on dismantling previous Labour-led efforts. In the City of Westminster new Conservative councillors presented a challenge to the pedestrianisation plans for Oxford Street.
Conservative councillors in Enfield have announced their plans to revoke the Crews Hill and Chase Park from the governments New Towns programme, which is also allocated in the Draft Local Plan currently under examination.
Some areas of the city there will be an increasing gap between the ambitions of local government and that of national government. The effects of this will likely come to head in the next national elections. In the meantime, it will be interesting to see which, if any powers, the government uses to secure the delivery of the New Towns programme in these areas.