Our London City Hall Forum 2019
We will be back at City Hall, London on 26th June this year to run our regeneration, planning, transport and energy conference. This will be an important year for the UK in terms of developing vital infrastructure for economic advancement and social cohesion, providing homes to solve the housing crisis integrated into city regeneration, and harnessing the benefits of green energy.
Claire Perry MP, Minister of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) spoke with the Sustainable Energy Association in December about the need to maintain momentum on climate action with the aim to be more ambitious and innovative. She highlighted the UK Government's work on the Buildings Mission with two milestone documents setting out 'the next steps for heat in buildings off the gas grid and for heat networks'.
Last year at our May City Hall event, the Chief Executive of the NIC, Phil Graham made our opening speech on the need for joined-up infrastructure and housing. In December, the Commission warned that Whitehall and Town Halls should offer greater support to efforts to meet people's growing demands for fast deliveries while also reducing congestion and carbon emissions.
The UK's freight industry it states is 'one of the most efficient and productive in the world, moving over two billion tonnes of goods in 2016 alone, however while lorries and vans only make up a fifth of the total vehicle mileage in the UK, they cause 31 per cent of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions from transport'. It urges the need to 'tackle this through the planning system, through better regulation and access to better data.'
The NIC has also commented on the UK Government's recent 'Resources and Waste Strategy', saying that future fiscal incentives should be as smart as possible, focussing on the environmental costs - an incineration tax that concentrates on material generating harmful emissions and a landfill tax that targets biodegradable waste generating methane.
Meanwhile the UK Government has announced new cyber security standards for self-driving vehicles to help give protection from hacking and highlight how the UK is a leader in the field with the publication of this standard. Working with academics and experts from leading businesses in the car industry, the Department of Transport funded research was developed by the British Standards Institute.
Jesse Norman, Future of Mobility Minister, said ''This cyber security standard should help to improve the resilience and readiness of the industry and help keep the UK at the forefront of advancing transport technology'. The UK market for connected and automated vehicles is forecast to be worth up to £52 billion by 2035.