Promoting Westway Trust and the people and place we represent to London’s decision-makers
Angela McConville, Westway Trust's Chief Executive, explains some of things that she took away from a recent conference.
Most local interest groups and Member Organisations are well versed in the challenges we face as an organisation in meeting the plethora of needs and desires of local people, whether through our services and/or by providing appropriate space.
However, people maybe less aware of the challenges and requirements of being a landowner and socially motivated landlord and the responsibilities that comes with these roles, for example:
- Continually finding innovative ways of bringing forward plans to bring more space into use
- Optimising and reconfiguring space to fit the needs of users in the 21st century
- Making sure we stay up to date with government regulation and health and safety and duties of care standards
While it is absolutely vital that we spend quality time talking to local people and understanding their needs to address these challenges, we, as a team, also spend time looking further afield to see how other organisations in London, the UK and abroad innovate and meet these challenges.
To this end, I recently went to MIPIM, a major annual worldwide gathering of people who work in similar fields. I want to share the insight I gleaned from my time there and the influence I brought to bear.
MIPIM gathers all the key thinkers on London’s structure and infrastructure - its buildings, economy, transport networks and public spaces – to exchange ideas in an intense few days of meetings, talks and seminars. Obviously, Brexit and its impact dominated discussions - there are many challenges ahead and it was useful to hear from key figures across the public and private sector about how we might best meet them.
I used the event has an opportunity to, in a short space of time, meet with many organisations we need to influence, and to hear insight and ideas from individuals and organisations we might learn from.
Our most pressing challenge as a socially motivated landlord is to extend our head lease on the estate from 86 years to 150 years and review the obligations under the lease to satisfy a suite of duties and standards. While it’s not a very newsworthy topic, extending the head lease protects the future of the Trust and the land for the community for many more generations and therefore, getting these negotiations right is critically important. We have to use every opportunity we can find to discuss this subject with the key decision-makers.
One of the pressing actions for me was to take the opportunity to raise the Trust’s profile with key decision makers at Transport for London and the Greater London Authority, who can play a significant role in the Trust’s future. At the event I was able to strengthen our relationships with these and other key London organisations. I made some good progress on issues relating to the extension of our head lease, and about funding and partnership opportunities, and I have further meetings planned in the coming weeks to advance these projects.
The conference is also an opportunity to talk to neighbouring landowners. I was able to get updates on major projects taking place near us such the Imperial College London and Old Oak developments. Both of these will impact our community and we will need to consider our response to their plans in time.
Attending MIPIM is also an opportunity to hear from the political decision makers who may not influence our work directly but do influence our world. This was the first MIPIM since Sadiq Khan became Mayor of London and it was a useful opportunity to understand where he and his team, such as Deputy Mayors Jules Pipe and James Murray stand, through events put on by organisations like London First and Westminster Property Association. Deputy Mayor Pipe’s assertion that increasing the amount of affordable office space is as important for London as affordable housing rang true to me. The Trust’s challenge in supporting local enterprise is not finding local businesses to support but finding room for them all in the existing buildings.
Quite apart from being a great opportunity to make connections and start conversations that might benefit North Kensington, the event presents a great opportunity to hear cutting edge ideas from across the world that we might apply here. I was interested to hear presentations from a group of East London boroughs who have secured investment in their communities and to think about how West London might benefit in the same way. I was also interested to hear from Tom Bloxham of Urban Splash whose innovative developments of modular housing in Manchester, are keeping costs low, using exciting designs and allowing owners the opportunity to customise layout so that each home has its own character. While he was talking about housing, I think the concepts put forward by Urban Splash could also help to solve issues around a lack of community space and a need for more responsive working spaces locally. Lucy Musgrave of Publica, who specialise in designing public spaces that reflect social and cultural concerns locally, spoke about the importance making sure that in a rush to meet London’s built environment needs that design is not forgotten so that spaces are useful long into the future.
The event was inspiring and informative and I’m glad to be back under the Westway where over the last week I’ve been meeting with our Member Organisations and hearing from them about how we can work together to make the Westway estate work best for the whole local community.