•  Introductory
• Character of Growth of Outer London
• Indications of Structure
• Assmptions
• The Nature of the Plan
• Structure of the Plan: Zoning; the Four Rings
• Structure of the Plan:  Communications
• Structure of the Plan:  the Open Background
• The Policy Aimed At in the Detailed Movement of Population and Work - SPORADIC MOVEMENT OR OSCILLATION: SPECULATIVE BUILDING: VILLAGES - DECENTRALISATION IN AND NEAR THE REGION:APPLICATION TO EXISTING COMMUNITIES: NEW SITES: QUASI-SATELLITES - POPULATION DISPERSED OUTSIDE THE REGION - THE DECENTRALISING BOROUGHS AND THE SUBURBAN RING - INDUSTRIAL LOCATION COMPARED WITH HOUSING - DETAILED STUDIES - STANDARDS - PUBLIC SERVICES
• Realisation: Design and Amenity
• Realisation: the Administrative machine
• The Picture Aimed At

 
ASSUMPTIONS

The present Plan is based upon certain assumptions. No proposals of any positive value can be made unless there is either a definite programme of requirements, or alternatively, certain assumptions which the planner must make. If plans, for instance, are being put forward for a Naval Base or Port, it is essential to know whether the function of the Base or Port is intended to continue, and whether it is to increase or decrease. But in the present case there is not one predominant function, but rather all the complexity of the Capital and its environs. In the City and the County of London the proposition is in some respects easier; there we are faced with certain precise problems for which solutions can be propounded (though not necessarily agreed to!); the fixing of densities of people to provide satisfactory conditions for health and work; the relief of traffic congestion; the isolation and integration of functions; the domestic, monumental and commercial rebuilding of destroyed areas. London as the Capital reaches a certain degree of definiteness for its central parts.
But, in the surrounding Region, the picture has to be completed in the absence of any precise frame of its enclosing boundary to give finality to the composition. To continue the metaphor, in place of a framed picture, it is necessary to attempt a frescoed treatment which shall include not only walls and ceiling, but also the design of floor, all insensibly leading out into the surrounding setting.
The regional planning area round the Capital cannot actually be bounded even by such a line as that of the London Passenger Transport Area. Perforce, an area of first instance has had to be defined, embracing the whole of three counties and parts of five. Middlesex, Hertfordshire, and Surrey are wholly included; Kent, out to Gravesend and beyond Sevenoaks; Essex, to beyond Ongar, Shenfield and Wickford; a small portion of Bedfordshire around Luton and Dunstable; a part of Buckinghamshire as far out as Amersham and High Wycombe; and a part of Berkshire, including Windsor and Ascot. But as proposals take shape we are led to consider their effect on towns as far distant as 50 miles; we have indeed to contemplate decentralisation taking people even further afield.
If, then, the proposals for this vast and varied area, this nebulous entity which rings the Capital, are to have definite value, they must be based on definite assumptions.

Assumption 1
The first of these is the recommendation contained in the Barlow Report, that no new industry shall be admitted to London and the Home Counties except in special cases. This involves consideration of the industrial future of London and its surroundings.
Does it presage a gradual reduction of industry? Every year factory undertakings disappear; if new ones are not allowed to take their place, is there then a prospect of London becoming a distressed area, or are many existing industries likely to expand and continue to do so?

Assumption 2
Inseparable from consideration of London’s industrial future is the question of decentralisation of persons and industry from the congested centre, already recommended in the County of London Plan, and this recommendation forms the second assumption. The authors of the County of London Plan, while preferring a density of 100 persons pet acre for central areas, have recommended a density of 136, as they felt “that the actual numbers to be decentralised would be difficult to equate with the amount of industry which could be expected to migrate.” If a high degree of direction is taken in the location of industry, then the lower of these two density figures, involving a decentralisation of 817,750 persons might be followed, but for the purposes of this Report the recommended density of 136, involving the decentralisation of 618,000 persons, has been assumed. To this will be added the figure in the present Report for decanting from overcrowded places outside the L.C.C. Area, namely, 415,000, giving a grand total of 1,033,000 persons to be decentralised, or moved from the central mass. A steady exodus of population was already taking place before the war, but if this move were merely accelerated without a corresponding move of work-places, it would result in worse transport congestion and more loss of time, money and energy.
The chief change, therefore, resulting from these two assumptions, will be a rearrangement of population and industry within the Region. The numbers in the centre will decrease, those in the outer areas will grow, though no longer at a spectacular rate, nor in a sporadic way.

Assumption 3
The third assumption, which is implicit in the other two, is that as a result of the Barlow recommendation, and in consonance with national trends, the total population of the area will not increase, but on the contrary , will be somewhat reduced. In other words, and in accordance with the desire for a more logical grouping of industry on national lines, the redistribution of population and industry will proceed up to and even beyond the physical limits of the area under discussion.

Assumption 4
An assumption is required, dealing with the future of London as a Port. If the Port of London ceases to thrive, London will decay. It is assumed, therefore, for the purposes of this Report, that the Port London will continue to be one of the world’s great ports.

Assumption 5
It is assumed that new powers for planning will be available, including powers for the control of land values.
 

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