“2025 is the year to turn around London’s housing challenge” – that was the sentiment from Tom Copley, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development as he spoke at the our MIPIM Housing lunch on Tuesday, kindly hosted by members Arcadis.
Tom acknowledged that the capital is falling way short of its new 88,000 annual home delivery target, but stressed that it is now in the position, and has the levers, to turn this around: 2025 is the year of change.
Setting the scene, James Knight from Arcadis provided his thoughts on what London needs. Greater subsidy to encourage private investment, greater flexibility of tenure, new towns and more public private partnerships are all key pathways to delivery.
Crucially, these must be underpinned and supported by Government, and with the combined forces of Westminster, the GLA and London Boroughs all now pushing in the same direction, now is the time to for it to step up.
Though injecting some much-needed sunshine to counter the pouring rain outside, Tom did not shy away from the challenges. Whilst the figure of 88,000 new homes is emblazoned in his mind, the £120m per month that London Boroughs are spending on temporary accommodation is stark and cannot continue.
However, the GLA is set on moving things forward – armed with both a new Growth Plan, the review of the London Plan, and the hot off the press Planning and Infrastructure Bill published this week – housing and growth is at the very heart of its objectives.
“After listening to some frank discussions around the challenges faced in the delivery of new homes across London at all levels, it was refreshing to hear Tom’s thoughts on the future. If the GLA and Westminster really engage with the right voices in the industry the feeling is that we can get some certainty around planning tax and regulation, consistency (no surprises), pragmatism and speed in the development process. This will improve sentiment and see 2025/26 as the year to make the step and invest in London, we will look back at 2025 as the year things improved.” (James Knight MRICS, Residential Sector Leader, Arcadis)
The Mayor has the powers to drive forward housing delivery across existing vehicles and potentially new ones, including a new City Hall Developer Investment Fund which would be complimentary to the Affordable Homes Programme, constantly reinvesting funding to deliver in future years. Tom stressed that all parts of the industry must pull together, signalling a role for newer sectors like Build to Rent to really ramp up the momentum on delivery.
The room buzzed with ideas: there was a groundswell of support for new towns in London, greater powers for the Mayor around setting MDOs, and modular housing built at pace and scale to tackle London’s temporary accommodation challenges. London is on the precipice of change; we need to showcase what London can do because what is good for London, is ultimately good for the whole of the UK.
For more information about our housing work, contact Steph Pollitt.