Former BD editor criticised a lack of vision on the built environment under Sadiq Khan
New London Architecture co-founder and former Building Design editor Peter Murray has announced his bid to become the next London mayor as an “actively non-political” independent.
The 81-year-old told BD he was motivated to launch his bid for the 2028 election because he believed the perceived importance of the built environment has “dropped down the scale” under current mayor Sadiq Khan.
Praising Richard Rogers’ original London Plan, drawn up for former mayor Ken Livingstone, Murray said: “I don’t feel there is that level of vision within city hall as we look forward to a new city plan”.
He said he wanted to counter “a whole new bunch of politicians dealing with London at the next election who may know even less about how the built environment sector is essential to delivering what mayors need to deliver”.
Murray, who was the editor of BD from 1974 to 1979 and later edited the RIBA Journal, said he was currently assembling a team and would hold a series of consultation meetings over the next few months to flesh out specific policies.
He is planning to announce a coordinated plan for the capital next year.
The bid would be unaffiliated with any political party in order to enable cooperation between the capital’s 32 boroughs, Murray said, adding: “When you have people of different political persuasions, then that is complicated, as you could see with the relationship with mayors.”
“Facilitation will be one of the key issues which I’ll address. I am not a politician. I won’t work in a political way. I’ll take a much more pragmatic view of how we deliver what is best for London and best for Londoners,” Murray said.
Getting more homes built would be “top of the agenda”, with Murray in favour of lowering affordable housing targets following a sharp drop in housing delivery in London over the past year amid worsening viability challenges for developers caused by the burden of new fire safety regulations, a slowing housing market and rising construction costs.
He is in favour of lowering affordable housing requirements below 35%, following Sadiq Khan’s move to bring the number down to 20% in October.
Murray said: “To reduce [from] 35% is absolutely right. Where you reduce it to is a complex argument, and I think I would always take the view that what we need is a healthy development sector, and not to over penalize them, because then they’ll stop delivering what London needs.”
He added: “My view is that it is better to have some [affordable] than none. And if you’re dealing with the private sector, the private sector clearly is not keen to build if they’re going to lose money when they do it. And I think viability is an important part of the whole debate about how we deliver affordable.”
Murray, who spent six years on the board of Barking and Dagenham’s housing company Be First, also said he wanted to see a “pan-London approach” to factory-built modular housing.
He said modular housing, which has declined in recent years due to the vulnerability of the sector to uneven demand, could be sustained by regular orders from the public sector.
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