News

Our response to Westminster City Council’s Partial Review of the City Plan

29 Apr 2024

On behalf of WPA members, the Association has responded to Westminster City Council’s Partial Review of the City Plan. The response was developed with the input of leading specialists across planning, engineering, sustainability and development to ensure the veracity of our analysis. 

In a letter to Cllr Geoff Barraclough (Cabinet Member for Planning and Economic Development at Westminster City Council), we welcome the City Council’s commitment to achieving good growth and express WPA’s desire to continue working with the City Council to ensure that emerging policy is consistent with these shared objectives.  

Whilst described as ‘partial’, these proposed policies could have far-reaching implications for development and economic growth in Westminster. It is therefore imperative that these policies get the balance between environmental, social and economic policy objectives right. However, the rigorous research and data that underpins the WPA response has identified areas where proposed policies require revision in order to unambiguously secure Westminster City Council’s stated objectives. 

In particular, we are grateful to Gerald Eve who have led on the drafting of the submission and AECOM, Arup and Buro Happold for their technical engineering input, as well as the WPA Planning & Sustainability Committee and WPA Planning Consultants Group. 

The WPA Representations can also be found below, alongside our viability representations and associated appendices.

Read the full response here

Accompanying and supporting documents

Download the appendices here

Further reading 

Consultation response: Response to Westminster City Council’s draft Retrofit Policy 

Report: Delivering Good Growth in Westminster 

Press release: ‘Flexible and balanced’ approach to planning could address sharp decline in development in Westminster and unlock 14 million sq ft of additional commercial floorspace and 87,000 jobs by 2045