Policy information sourced from the Islington Local Plan
DH1 Fostering innovation and conserving and enhancing the historic environment
- Islington supports innovative approaches to development as a means to increasing development capacity to meet identified needs, while simultaneously addressing any adverse heritage impacts and protecting and enhancing the unique character of the borough. In this context, an innovative approach is one that contributes to the delivery of the Local Plan objectives, including making the borough an inclusive and resilient place by ensuring the design of buildings meets contemporary standards, the needs of all users and mitigates against the impacts of climate change.
- Islington is a diverse place of many different areas which give the borough its character. Development can be accommodated throughout the borough, but the scale of development is dependent on a number of considerations, including design and heritage. The Council intends to develop design codes for some parts of the borough to provide clear design guidance for development in those areas.
- Development must protect or enhance the London View Management Framework views and Local Views (identified on the Policies Map).
- Development should protect or enhance the settings of Local Landmarks (identified on the Policies Map).
- The Council will conserve or enhance Islington’s heritage assets – both designated and non-designated – and their settings in a manner appropriate to their significance, including listed buildings, conservation areas, scheduled monuments, Archaeological Priority Areas, historic green spaces, locally listed buildings and locally significant shopfronts.
- Site potential for development and site density levels must be fully optimised, in order to make the best use of the scarce land resource in the borough. High density does not automatically mean buildings need to be tall. The design of development must create a human scale and massing.
- Tall buildings can help make best use of land by optimising the amount of development on a site, but they can also have significant adverse impacts due to their scale, massing and various associated impacts. Tall building locations must be carefully managed and restricted to specific sites where their impacts can be managed through appropriate design.
- Basement development can contribute to accommodating needs, for instance growing families, but they can also have significant adverse impacts. Any development involving basements will be strictly controlled.
- The agent-of-change principle ensures that the individual/organisation proposing change is responsible for ensuring that existing uses in the area are not adversely impacted, including through noise and vibration impacts. This principle will apply to all development proposals in the borough, and can include consideration of a wide range of planning issues, including compatibility of land uses and design.
For more information please see the Islington Local Plan