Unlocking Industrial Co-location Development in London

Co-location of industrial and other uses on a site has the potential to help fulfil London’s spatial needs. A new report based upon the discussions of the Industrial and Logistics Sounding Board Co-location Working Group considers the challenges and opportunities of unlocking this emerging development typology.

Over the last year, Deloitte has chaired a working group to consider how to deliver development projects that co-locate industrial floorspace with other land uses. The Co-location Working Group (‘CWG’), appointed by the Greater London Authority (‘GLA’) and BusinessLDN’s Industrial and Logistics Sounding Board (‘ILSB’), has published a report with recommendations on how policy and practice can support the delivery of successful co-location developments. Co-location is promoted by Policy E7 of the London Plan (2021) for its potential to help fulfil London’s spatial needs.

The report of the CWG is available for download at the link at the bottom of this page.

The Co-location Working Group

As co-location is an emerging development typology, the GLA is seeking to understand how co-location developments are successfully implemented in practice.

The ILSB was established in 2017 as an independent forum for industry professionals to engage with the GLA to formulate the draft London Plan policies in relation to industrial land uses.

The CWG was appointed by the ILSB as a forum in which public and private sector industry professionals (planning consultants; architects; developers; local planning authority officers; policy makers; and higher education academics) review and debate the challenges of delivering effective co-location projects.

London’s growing population has growing needs

Industrial sites are critical to the growth of the London economy, working around the clock to fulfil the needs of the city’s roughly 9 million inhabitants – and these needs are expanding. By 2041, London’s population is projected to reach 10.8 million¹ and the city’s industrial supply chain will need to keep pace to support the resulting surge in demand for goods and services.

Yet, the land available for industrial uses² in London is being depleted, in some instances through release for residential uses, which has at the same time increased demand for industrial space.³

London will need both robust residential and industrial space provision if its rapid growth is to be managed and the quality of life of its residents is to be maintained.

Co-location: a policy-driven, emerging development typology

To address the spatial needs of the rising population, the London Plan (2021) promotes both the provision of more housing⁴ and the designation⁵ and intensification⁶ of industrial uses across London.

Policy E7 ‘Industrial Intensification, co-location and substitution’ of the London Plan supports ‘co-location’ development, where industrial floorspace is consolidated on a site alongside other uses such as new homes.

Policy E7 supports co-location developments only where their design ensures non-industrial uses do not compromise or inhibit the business needs of the industrial occupier, and residential amenity is adequately safeguarded through mitigation of noise, dust, vibration and other impacts. In this way, both residential and industrial uses could be optimised.

The challenges of implementing successful co-location schemes

Of the co-location schemes approved since the adoption of the London Plan, a limited number have been implemented and occupied.⁷The discussions of the CWG explored the challenges faced by investors seeking to deliver these schemes.

The CWG identified that a key challenge is addressing the stipulation in Policy E7 for successful co-location: balancing the needs of industrial occupiers for appropriate operational space and residents for safeguarded amenity. The CWG recognised that achieving this balance may be the key to unlocking co-location schemes across London, having reference to case studies:

• Protecting residential amenity: Key to protecting the amenity of residents is choosing the best spatial arrangement for a site. On larger sites, such as Morden Wharf in Greenwich, London⁸, horizontal co-location of residential and heavier industrial uses on separate portions of the site is used as a design technique to avoid conflict. The project proposes to physically separate the residential element from the heavier industrial uses (use class B2/B8) by locating a “buffer building” for office use (use class E) in-between. This will act as an interface and transition use to mitigate the effects of the industrial operations on residential amenity.
• Maintaining operational flexibility for industrial occupiers: It is important to ensure that the design of a scheme does not impede the industrial occupier’s operations. On the Travis Perkins St. Pancras⁹ site in London, a student housing element was constructed above a ground-level builders’ merchant. The industrial element was designed with high ceilings to buffer noise impacts on the residents above, which involved the incorporation of several structural columns within the internal service yard. In practice, this has required the operator to adapt how it manages the movement of servicing and customer vehicles within the yard.

Recommendations of the Co-location Working Group

From its discussions of the key challenges for delivering co-location schemes, the CWG distilled six recommendations for how industry professionals and policymakers can work towards creating a toolkit for the successful implementation of co-location schemes, from project inception to completion.

These recommendations encourage:

1. Collaboration between local authorities, landowners and private sector professionals to engage in masterplanning for industrial sites to ensure intensification, consolidation and co-location are directed to appropriate locations. Co-ordinated identification of sites should be undertaken at the plan-making stage, to determine site-specific design and development principles.
2. Creation of an independent group of practitioners to provide insight to local authorities during plan-making and masterplanning, appointed by the Mayor of London. This collective resource group formed of private and public sector professionals would scrutinise evidence informing plan-making, raise evolving challenges in the sector and promote good practice.
3. The preparation of a shared design brief for industrial sites at the first design stage, to address the operational requirements for industrial space and avoid retrospective changes at later stages.
4. Incorporation of industrial specialists during the design phase, to avoid compromising on functionality of the industrial element. Collaboration between industrial and residential architects and developers can ensure that the design of both uses are optimised.
5. Inclusion of industrial experts on design and quality review panels for co-location projects, to ensure that applicants and panels benefit from specialist oversight.
6. Creation of a digital platform for recording co-location opportunities, for monitoring and knowledge-sharing amongst local authorities for applications of strategic importance.

Looking ahead

Co-location has the potential to provide innovative spatial solutions to the increasing demand for both industrial and residential space in London.

It is intended that the recommendations provided by the CWG in its report will influence practitioners and policy, including the GLA’s emerging London Plan Guidance on industrial intensification and capacity. Where policy and practice form a joined-up response to the inherent challenges of co-location, it is hoped that development opportunities can be un-locked to meet Londoner’s needs.

The report of the CWG is available for download at the link at the bottom of this page.

References

1. The Greater London Authority, The London Plan, 2021, p. 15.
2. Centre for London, Making Space: Accommodating London’s industrial future, 2022, p. 2.
3. AECOM, London Industrial Land Supply Study 2020 Executive Summary, 2023, p. 11.
4. The Greater London Authority, The London Plan, Policy H1 ‘Increasing housing supply’.
5. The London Plan, Policy E4 ‘Land for industry, logistics and services to support London’s economic function’.
6. The Greater London Authority, The London Plan, Policy E7 ‘Industrial intensification, co-location and substitution’.
7. Turley, Co-Location in London: Is it still stacking up?, 2023, pp. 8-9.
8. Morden Wharf, Royal Borough of Greenwich, planning app. ref. no 20/1730/O.
9. Travis Perkins St. Pancras Way, London Borough of Camden, planning app. ref. no. 2011/1586/P.