Policy information sourced from The London Plan 2021
D1 London’s Form, Character and Capacity for Growth
- Defining an area’s character to understand its capacity for growth: Boroughs should undertake area assessments to define the characteristics, qualities and value of different places within the plan area to develop an understanding of different areas’ capacity for growth. Area assessments should cover the elements listed below:
- demographic make-up and socio-economic data (such as Indices of Multiple Deprivation, health and wellbeing indicators, population density, employment data, educational qualifications, crime statistics)
- housing types and tenure
- urban form and structure (for example townscape, block pattern, urban grain, extent of frontages, building heights and density)
- existing and planned transport networks (particularly walking and cycling networks) and public transport connectivity
- air quality and noise levels
- open space networks, green infrastructure, and water bodies
- historical evolution and heritage assets (including an assessment of their significance and contribution to local character)
- topography and hydrology
- land availability
- existing and emerging Development Plan designations
- land uses
- views and landmarks.
- Planning for growth: In preparing Development Plans, boroughs should plan to meet borough-wide growth requirements, including their overall housing targets, by:
- using the findings of area assessments (as required in Part A) to identify suitable locations for growth, and the potential scale of that growth (e.g. opportunities for extensive, moderate or limited growth) consistent with the spatial approach set out in this Plan; and
- assessing the capacity of existing and planned physical, environmental and social infrastructure to support the required level of growth and, where necessary, improvements to infrastructure capacity should be planned in infrastructure delivery plans or programmes to support growth; and
- following the design-led approach (set out in Policy D3 Optimising site capacity through the design-led approach) to establish optimised site capacities for site allocations. Boroughs are encouraged to set out acceptable building heights, scale, massing and indicative layouts for allocated sites, and, where appropriate, the amount of floorspace that should be provided for different land uses.
For more information please see The London Plan 2021