LPAC was a committee of 32 local Councillors, (plus a representative from the City), who each led on planning matters for their respective local authority. Following the local elections of May 1986, LPAC had a delicate political balance made up as it was of 15 Labour Members, 14 Conservative Members, 3 SDP-Lib Dem Alliance Members and 1 Independent (the City).
The Committee was, for most of its existence, chaired by an Alliance member representing Richmond – Cllr Sally Hamwee (now Lib Dem peer Baroness Hamwee), who, against the odds, successfully kept LPAC in operation and the political parties working together when many commentators expected it to fold. Cllr Peter Broadbent was her first Deputy Chairman and Leader of the Labour Group, while Cllr Bob Coatman was Vice-Chairman and Leader of the Conservative Group.
Abolition Bill
Abolition Metropolitan Council and GLC
Setting up LPAC and first LPAC meetings
Policy Issues and Choices
Strategic Guidance published by government
London: World City Report
Strategic Advice submitted to government
State of the Environment report published
Strategic Guidance published by government
Labour Government commits to a new strategic authority for London
ALG /LPAC negotiations around specific powers in the GLA Act.
Mayor of London and the London Assembly come into existence
LPAC submits Endowment Package to the Mayor which outlines a programme for implementation across a wide range of policies.
LPAC was a space of invention, innovation, creativity because you’re operating in the margins of where formal and informal power belonged. And therefore, you could create, had to create coalitions. It’s the ability to turn the soft power into hard power (through the process of advocacy and institution building) that creates really resilient urban governance institutions.”
[Greg Clark, personal interview]
In November 1986 LPAC and the Government agreed an agenda that would lead to the production of strategic planning guidance (strategic guidance) for London. While there were many topics (13 in total) where work was required, the issue top of the list was housing.
Despite the devastation wrought to the east end by the Blitz, from the 1950s onwards, government policy actively sought to re-direct industry and office jobs away from London to new towns and places where there was space for expansion. The collapse in London’s manufacturing industries and the once mighty docks in the 1960s and 1970s compounded the decline to a reversal of policy as Whitehall and City Hall tried to slam the brakes on the decline. As London recovered from the early 1980s recession the dynamism of the economy shifted decisively to the west.
LPAC was created in the wake of the GLC’s abolition with limited powers but an ambitious goal: to keep a strategic vision for London alive. With cross-party collaboration, high-quality research, and a commitment to joined-up thinking, it played a vital role in shaping policy on housing, transport, the environment, and London’s global positioning.
This page explores the scale and substance of LPAC’s impact—its pioneering ideas, its successes, and the lessons still relevant today. It also highlights the challenges it faced, the opportunities it missed, and the legacy it handed over to the Greater London Authority.
Nicky Gavron joined the Committee as lead member for Haringey in 1988 and became the Labour lead member in 1989. She would go on to become Chair in 1994.
Nicky sadly passed away in 2024, but in the last few years of her life she was determined to find a way to tell the story of LPAC and its influence and role in shaping the London of the 2000s, a story which she felt had been overlooked by academics, researchers and commentators.
At the heart of her research was her extensive archive of documents and papers. Buried in boxes piled high in a study in her home, Broadlands, she enlisted the help of colleagues, friends and family to begin the process of bringing some sort of order to the more than 5000 reports, policy papers and personal communications in her collection.
This website is dedicated to the memory of Nicky Gavron, whose passion for London’s future was matched only by her determination to preserve its past. In her final years, she worked tirelessly to uncover and share the untold story of LPAC—its influence, its legacy, and its role in shaping the London we know today.
