London mayor Sadiq Khan today outlined new housing need figures for the next London Plan following a city-wide strategic housing market assessment (SHMA).
As Planning reported last week, the new draft London Plan, set to be published next month, will set out an overall target of 66,000 new homes every year, compared to the current target of 49,000.
The figures (see table below) show that, compared to the 2015 Further Alterations to the London Plan, some boroughs would see their annual targets rise sharply.
Merton would see the highest increase, with its target more than trebling from 411 to 1328. In total, 13 boroughs would see their targets more than double, including Croydon, Ealing, Enfield and Hounslow.
Six councils’ annual targets would drop. Kensington and Chelsea and Islington are set to see the biggest falls, both down by a third or more.
| Borough | New proposed annual housing target | Existing annual target in 2015 FALP | Difference | % increase |
| Merton | 1,328 | 411 | 917 | 223% |
| Bexley | 1,245 | 446 | 799 | 179% |
| Hillingdon | 1,553 | 559 | 994 | 178% |
| Hounslow | 2,182 | 822 | 1,360 | 165% |
| Sutton | 939 | 363 | 576 | 159% |
| Richmond upon Thames | 811 | 315 | 496 | 157% |
| Enfield | 1,876 | 798 | 1,078 | 135% |
| Harrow | 1,392 | 593 | 799 | 135% |
| Bromley | 1,424 | 641 | 783 | 122% |
| Ealing | 2,807 | 1,297 | 1,510 | 116% |
| Kingston upon Thames | 1,364 | 643 | 721 | 112% |
| Waltham Forest | 1,794 | 862 | 932 | 108% |
| Croydon | 2,949 | 1,435 | 1,514 | 106% |
| Newham | 3,850 | 1,994 | 1,856 | 93% |
| Brent | 2,915 | 1,525 | 1,390 | 91% |
| Barking and Dagenham | 2,264 | 1,236 | 1,028 | 83% |
| Redbridge | 1,979 | 1,123 | 856 | 76% |
| Havering | 1,875 | 1,170 | 705 | 60% |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | 1,648 | 1,031 | 617 | 60% |
| Lewisham | 2,117 | 1,385 | 732 | 53% |
| LLDC | 2,161 | 1,471 | 690 | 47% |
| Barnet | 3,134 | 2,349 | 785 | 33% |
| Haringey | 1,958 | 1,502 | 456 | 30% |
| Wandsworth | 2,310 | 1,812 | 498 | 27% |
| Camden | 1,086 | 889 | 197 | 22% |
| Greenwich | 3,204 | 2,685 | 519 | 19% |
| City of London | 146 | 141 | 5 | 4% |
| Lambeth | 1,589 | 1,559 | 30 | 2% |
| Westminster | 1,010 | 1,068 | -58 | -5% |
| Southwark | 2,554 | 2,736 | -182 | -7% |
| Tower Hamlets | 3,511 | 3,931 | -420 | -11% |
| Hackney | 1,330 | 1,599 | -269 | -17% |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 488 | 733 | -245 | -33% |
| Islington | 775 | 1,264 | -489 | -39% |
| OPDC | 1,367 | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Total | 64,935 | 42,389 | 22,546 | 53% |
According to the Greater London Authority (GLA), the "ambitious" new targets represent "roughly double" the current rate of homebuilding.
The SHMA also suggests that 65 per cent of these new homes will need to be affordable if they are to meet Londoners’ needs, City Hall said.
A GLA spokesman confirmed that the new London Plan's affordable housing aspirational target would remain at 50 per cent. The higher level of affordable housing need is due to recent underdelivery, he explained.
To meet the higher overall housing target and to provide enough affordable homes, Khan has called on the government "to commit to profoundly boosting the funding and powers available to London" in next month’s Budget.
In particular, the mayor has urged Whitehall funding for affordable housing in London to increase by a factor of five, returning to its 2009/10 levels of £2.7 billion a year before the Conservative-led Coalition came to power. The GLA says the current government spending level is about £500 million a year.
According to the GLA, in his first six months in office, Khan "has boosted affordable housing in the planning system" up to a level of 38 per cent across all planning applications. This compares to "the record low of 13 per cent in planning approvals he inherited from the previous mayor", it said.
