For this episode we were joined by Melanie Leech - Chief Executive · ‎British Property Federation. Melanie joined the British Property Federation in 2015, following nine years as Director General of the Food and Drink Federation and subsequently held a number of senior roles in the civil service. Our conversation covering many aspects of industry, from commercial to build to rent and the future of town centres, post pandemic. 

 You can read more about the PBF’s “Redefining Real Estate” at   https://bpf.org.uk/redefining-real-estate/ 

Delighted to be joined by Owen Hatherley for this historic look at the governance of the capital. Owen has recently authored Red Metropolis, and we took the opportunity to discuss with him the roles of the LCC and LCA, the impact of their architecture practice and house building programmes. And of course the creation of London Transport. 

You can get Red Metropolis at – https://repeaterbooks.com/product/red-metropolis-socialism-and-the-government-of-london/ 

The films we discussed are: 

London – https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.d0aa77e3-8837-b21c-6258-3cfb61ef418e?autoplay=1&ref_=atv_cf_strg_wb 

Utopia London – http://www.utopialondon.com/ 

 Finally, Owen’s discussion with Kate Macintosh is available here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrOSqHBhedo&t=777s 

This is the first of our borough specials where we sit down with the senior stakeholders. Hounslow is sandwiched in-between Heathrow to the west and Kew Gardens and Chiswick in the east. We spoke with Ruth Cadbury, the MP for Brentford and Isleworth, Seema Malhotra, the MP for Feltham and Heston and Leader of the Council, Steve Curran. We spoke to each about the impact of Covid, housing design and delivery, consultation and ambitions for the future.

We were delighted to be joined by Luke Ives (Building Equality) Mia Scaggiante and Scott Hudson (Planning Out) to talk about the issues facing the LGBT+ community working within the built environment. What more we can do to be an inclusive industry and how LGBT+ issues can help inform our work. 

You can get in touch with Building Equality via https://www.buildingequalityuk.com/ and Planning Out https://twitter.com/planningout?lang=en. 

One of the big questions we ask ourselves is how do you build in suburbia? Is the answer in our own history? With that in mind it was great to sit down with Sharon Giffen (TfL)  as co-host and Joshua Abbott, the author of the fantastic Modernism in Metroland. We look at the impact and the architecture of area’s that grew due to the expansion of the lines out of the capital. What do we need to save and what lessons can we learn from the eras of development.

You can order a copy of the book at here.

You can visit Joshua's website here.  And follow him on Twitter here. 

A special edition of the podcast we spoke with AJ Kahle co-founder of Blue Shift about the upcoming U.S Elections. We touched on how the campaign has gone, what to look out for on the night and what might be expected from the candidate who wins. 

For the first episode of series two we are delighted to welcome Alicia Kennedy to the podcast. Alicia recently took over as the new Director of Generation Rent. Generation Rent campaign for private renters and we discussed their current campaigns as well as the impact of Covid and what happens next in relation to the eviction ban. As well the build to rent market and what TfL could be doing in our schemes.

You can find out more at: https://www.generationrent.org/ 

We discussed Vent Your Rent which can be viewed here: https://ventyour.rent/ 

For the final episode of the series we where delighted to be joined by Professor Danny Dorling, the Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography of the School of Geography and the Environment of the University of Oxford.

Danny has written several books that focus on the issue of inequality, including All that is Solid that focuses on how housing impacts inequality. We discussed this plus much else including the impact of the pandemic, examples of successful housing policy from Finland as well as Massive Attack.

 It’s a honest and thought provoking interview and obviously the views are that of Danny and not that of TfL. You can read All that is Solid at https://southwarknotes.files.wordpress.com/2019/03/danny-dorling-all-that-is-solid-the-great-housing-disaster.pdf (the section we discuss is on page 973) and Danny’s new book is called “Finntopia” and will be out in September.

Another special edition of the podcast where we were delighted to be joined by Jonn Elledge. Jonn is a journalist and works freelance now but has before  written in the Guardian, was assistant editor of the New Statesman as well as, as many of you will know, editing the City Metric website and the Skylines podcast. A bit different from the usual episodes as we focused on transport as well as the usual issues of housing and the commercial aspects of TfL.

You can visit CityMetric at: https://www.citymetric.com/

The Greggs map of Britain article is: https://www.citymetric.com/business/what-map-uks-1650-branches-greggs-can-tell-us-about-british-high-street-1669

All 150 episodes of Skylines can be found at: https://www.citymetric.com/content/skylines-podcast but only after you’ve listened to CommsCAST.

We were lucky to be joined by Sadie Anna Morgan OBE is the co-founder of dRMM, the RIBA Stirling Prize winning architecture practice. She is the chair of the Independent Design Panel for HS2 and a board member of the National Infrastructure Commission. She is one of the Mayor's Design Advocates and is on the board of Homes England. We discuss all these roles as well lifetime community engagement, alternative housing models and diversity in the architectural industry.