Westminster to reconsider its draft City Management Plan

The draft Plan required an "increase in residential floorspace at least commensurate with increases in commercial floorspace in order to enhance the mixed character of different parts of the Central Activities Zone".

Developers have argued that the requirements to provide residential floorspace in the draft Plan would result in many development schemes becoming unviable. Consultation on the Plan closed on Friday and WCC is now expected to review the responses and issue an amended Plan in due course.

The Plan (326-page / 10MB PDF) aims to shape planning policy for the city. It is the second Development Plan Document in Westminster's Local Development Framework and it will sit alongside the London Borough's core strategy.

It sets out development plan policy for Westminster and will form the basis on which all planning applications must be determined, unless material considerations indicate otherwise.

The draft document is organised into seven distinct chapters that mirror Westminster’s Strategic Objectives, detailed in the Core Strategy. The Plan shows that the City aims to protect commercial space whilst balancing the need for residential accommodation.

The draft Plan promotes the provision of off-site affordable housing if it would lead to quantitative and qualitative improvement in housing to be provided in the Borough. If the location of the off-site housing to be provided is in a different land value zone to the proposed development, though, then a multiplier will be applied and the developer will have to make a payment in lieu.

Westminster intends to submit the Plan to the Secretary of State in spring 2012.