The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (Michael Gove)
Today, I am using my powers in the Greater London Authority Act 1999 to direct the Mayor to review the London plan. I have also announced planning support to boost housing delivery in the capital.
On 12 February, I set out changes Government are consulting on making in national policy to unlock more brownfield development, alongside a number of other major interventions in London. I am confident these reforms will help reverse the chronic under-delivery that has occurred in London, but they will not on their own be sufficient to provide the homes that London desperately needs.
The Greater London Authority is consistently underdelivering on housing: to tackle the backlog of housing delivery and meet the targets set out within the London plan, the rate of delivery would need to increase from an average of 37,200 to more than 62,300 homes per year. The Greater London Authority’s data also shows a steep reduction in the number of residential units being approved between 2018-19 and 2022-23. I have repeatedly warned the Greater London Authority that its London plan, which sets out how and where homes will be built, is holding back housebuilding due to its complexity.
That is why I am using powers under section 340 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999 to direct a review of the policies specified below in the London plan that I fear are holding delivery back and require urgent action.
Industrial Land
The Mayor reported last year that there is an estimated 6,800 hectares of land in industrial use in London and 736 hectares of land in industrial and related uses in the planning pipeline that could potentially change to non-industrial use. Keeping our capital running of course requires the right industrial land in the right places, supporting and servicing residents and businesses across the city—and some of these activities need to take place within London. Stakeholders have, however, told us that the Mayor’s policies on designation are too inflexible, which in effect is discouraging developers from bringing forward other measures such as industrial intensification, co-location and substitution—all of which could enable additional residential development without compromising the capital’s industrial needs. To illustrate, every 1% of SIL/LSIS land released for housing could have a capacity for 5,000 new homes for London if we assume 80% of each plot is developable with a density of 150 homes per hectare.
I am therefore directing the Mayor to review whether policies E4—land for industry, logistics and services to support London’s economic function, E5—strategic industrial locations, E6—locally significant industrial sites, and E7—industrial intensification, co-location and substitution—remain fit for purpose, and are making the most efficient use of land in light of London’s acute housing needs. This should include consideration of the opportunities to strengthen support for increased delivery of housing on industrial land, particularly in areas well-served by public transport.
Opportunity areas
The Mayor identified 47 opportunity areas in the London plan, which he deemed as having the potential to each deliver at least 2,500 homes or 5,000 new jobs, or a combination of the two. While there is clear merit in focusing effort on those areas with the greatest potential, too many have made almost no progress and others appear to have plateaued. This suggests that the opportunity areas policy (SD1) is not doing enough to unlock growth and regeneration potential in all these areas, with some areas having made almost no progress. The 2017 strategic housing land availability assessment (SHLAA) stated that there was the potential for over 460,000 homes to be built by 2041 in opportunity areas, but at the current annual rate of completions of 13,275 in 2022-2023 this target will be missed—unless delivery is significantly ramped up in later years. I am therefore directing a review of how this policy can be amended to maximise the scale of ambition and accelerate housing delivery, particularly in areas such as Euston, which are well connected and hold the potential for thousands of homes. The review of SD1 should also consider whether the current list of opportunity areas is correctly targeted, how other policies in the plan that constrain capacity or delivery might be appropriately adjusted where they are applied in opportunity areas, and whether there is a role for a single planning framework to accelerate housing.
Planning S uper S quad
In London, we want to ensure that our capital has the housing it needs. Today, I can confirm that following discussions with Greenwich and Newham, I am prioritising these boroughs for assistance from my Department’s new planning super squad. This team, which will comprise leading planners and specialists whose talents will be used to unblock major developments, will provide Greenwich and Newham with £500,000 worth of specialist support in 2024-25, helping to unlock over 7,000 homes.
Recognising that more needs to be done to enable boroughs across the capital to overcome specific issues that are holding back delivery, I have also asked the super squad to focus some of its early efforts on working strategically across London on complex blocked sites and strategic issues.
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