Questions to the Mayor of London – answered at on 26 February 2021.
How is your Cultural Infrastructure Plan protecting & increasing cultural facilities in London?
My Cultural Infrastructure Plan brings together a range of policies and programmes to support and grow cultural facilities and this approach has already been proven to work.
My Culture at Risk Office was set up to safeguard and protect cultural infrastructure in London and has supported and protected over 715 cultural spaces and organisations during the COVID-19 pandemic alone.
My London Plan includes explicit protection for existing cultural venues, facilities and uses. It includes a new Agent of Change and Public House policy. This has already benefitted threatened infrastructure such as the George Tavern in Stepney. The new Creative Enterprise Zones policy has supported the delivery of over 15,000sqm of affordable creative workspace in 6 boroughs. New Cultural Infrastructure has also been secured, resulting in over 13,000sqm of space. Provision for new cultural infrastructure is also embedded in the Opportunity Area Planning Framework for Abbey Wood and Thamesmead.