Khan cuts London Plan housing targets
London mayor Sadiq Khan has heavily reduced his London Plan housing targets after his tactics to boost delivery failed to impress planning inspectors.
Khan has conceded a significant fall in his new homes target from 64,935 to 52,285 a year, in line with recommendations from planning inspectors reviewing City Hall’s draft London Plan.
The reduction was unveiled in Khan’s response to the inspector, published this week with his final “intend to publish” version of his plan. Overall targets have dropped from 649,350 homes by 2029 to 522,850, and the small sites target has been reduced from 245,730 new homes to 119,250.
London mayor Sadiq Khan has heavily reduced his London Plan housing targets after his tactics to boost delivery failed to impress planning inspectors.
Khan has conceded a significant fall in his new homes target from 64,935 to 52,285 a year, in line with recommendations from planning inspectors reviewing City Hall’s draft London Plan.
The reduction was unveiled in Khan’s response to the inspector, published this week with his final “intend to publish” version of his plan. Overall targets have dropped from 649,350 homes by 2029 to 522,850, and the small sites target has been reduced from 245,730 new homes to 119,250.
London boroughs particularly affected by the climbdown include Barnet, whose target for net housing completions dropped from 31,340 to 23,640; Harrow whose target fell from 13,920 to 8,020 and Newham whose target dropped from 38,500 to 32,800.
The inspectors’ report, published in October, had rejected Khan’s proposals for new homes on small sites, mainly in outer London, over the next decade. The report said that while it is “a major concern” that London is failing to meet its requirement for 66,000 new homes a year, “the evidence simply does not justify the reliance placed by the mayor on small sites to fill the gap between the two and we are sceptical about the deliver from this source”.
The report added that the previous plan for small sites would have required a “massive” uplift in delivery, which was “highly unlikely to occur, based on the available evidence”, meaning it would be “setting the plan up to fail”.
In a covering letter to the secretary of state, Khan said: “I want to make it clear that I am absolutely committed to delivering more of the homes that Londoners need, and this will include making much greater use of small sites across the capital as well as bringing new players into the market. The revised housing target remains ambitious and represents a step-change from that set out in the current London Plan, so it is in all our interests to get the new plan adopted as soon as possible. I look forward to the government supporting that ambition with the investment in affordable housing and infrastructure that is needed.”
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