Sir Edward Lister: It is horribly complicated—and a bit different from the way things are done in Los Angeles.

In London, our boroughs are planning authorities. Above them is the Greater London Authority, which is the Mayor’s Office. We’re the strategic planning authority. Any plan application over 30 meters in height or over 150 residential units is referred to us, as well as any building on metropolitan open land or greenbelt land, including playing fields. We can then decide whether to leave a scheme with the borough or to take it over. 

Perhaps more importantly, we are also the strategic planner. We write the London Plan, a strategy document and spatial development plan for the city, which we keep under constant review. It’s subject to public inquiry, so every time we change anything, it’s a long process. It is the Bible that everybody must comply with.

What is the strategic focus of the current London Plan?

It’s a strategy planning document, so we’re primarily interested in where the housing is going, the zoning, the commercial areas, the heights, and the densities. 

We’re also interested in connectivity. We set out ratings for transportation that decide how much car parking is allowed. In Central London, it’s very limited. In Outer London, you’re allowed more car-parking space. All that is defined by our estimate of the connectivity. You could be in Outer London but well connected to public transport, in which case we are likely to restrict your car parking. 

We also set minimum space standards for properties and deal with disability. 10 percent of all properties have to be convertible for disability use, although they don’t have to be outfitted for it.

....

Pivoting back to city planning, did the Olympics impact the London Plan? How so?

Tremendously. Stratford, where the Olympics were held, is a corner of London where, 15 years ago, you didn’t walk around late at night. It was an area of rundown industrial premises with very low employment levels, largely used for recycling fridges or cars. It was heavily contaminated and very poor. Strangely enough, it was quite well connected but not used. 

The Olympics did something that would have happened anyway, but probably would have taken 30 or 40 years instead of happening in one go. The area was cleared; the contaminated land was removed; the area was opened up; and then came redevelopment. 

Stratford is providing thousands of homes and jobs, and has changed out of all recognition. So we have gained an enormous benefit from the Olympics.

We’ve also gained in transportation terms, because it made us upgrade our rail networks in that part of London. The Jubilee Line—the underground network that goes into that part of London—used to run a train every six or seven minutes. Now, we run a train every two minutes on that line. That is a fundamental change. It’s all about signaling and redesigning the network accordingly.

Going back 20 years, another example, I suppose, is the Docklands. How did that development opportunity change London and the Plan?

That was a very similar story—old, unused land where we established a development corporation to sort it out. The area was given the green light for high-rise commercial property. At that time, there was a lot of resistance in the core of London to large floor-plated and high-rise buildings. So the big banks moved to Canary Wharf with their large floor-plated sites. 

Since then, it’s changed. Today the London Plan has designated Canary Wharf for highrise and high density. Just in one small section alone, there are over 20 buildings over 60 stories in height currently under construction. That gives you an idea of how that area, which was totally rundown, has changed.