London's Plan to Set Up 'Creative Zones' for Artist Housing

London may be a center for the creative industries, but high rents and low wages are making life for the city’s budding artists increasingly untenable. Thanks to a new plan being put together by London City Hall, however, that situation could be about to change. According to local media reports, London’s newly appointed Deputy Mayor for Culture, Justine Simons, has plans to protect London’s creative scene with special “Creative Enterprise Zones.” In an attempt to create an integrated response to the problems facing London’s artists, these zones could be set up in areas of London that already have higher concentrations of artists’ studios, such as East London’s Hackney Wick and Southeastern Peckham.

The exact details of how these zones would function haven’t been confirmed publicly. But the plan was part of Mayor Sadiq Khan’s election campaign earlier this year, and with no need for special London Assembly approval, specifics should be firmed up in the near future. While campaigning, Mayor Khan suggested that these zones could contain subsidized live-work spaces for people with lower incomes working in arts and fashion. Another possibility, mentioned off the record by city hall officials, is to make sure studio complexes can’t be snapped up by residential developers, forcing creative workers to move on, often away from the city entirely. A further suggestion, brought up by Simons in The Standard is to provide assistance for artists looking to buy their own studios. While this would only help artists with fairly established careers, it could help some London creatives manage the Kafkaesque process of securing a loan, which is incredibly difficult for people whose income relies on numerous irregular payments.