Complexity and coordination in London’s Silvertown Quays: How real estate developers (re)centred themselves in the planning process

Abstract

This paper examines how real estate developers maintain and reassert their centrality in urban governance through complex internal coordination mechanisms. Drawing on an in-depth case study of London’s Silvertown Quays, it demonstrates how developers create multiple sub-centres of power within development organizations to manage political, financial and community risks. The analysis shows how these coordination practices generate opacity in planning processes, limit community engagement, and ultimately enable developers to entrench themselves at the centre of urban governance.