Chancellor George Osborne has outlined new plans intended to contribute to the 400,000 new homes needed in London by 2025.
Speaking at a housing development in Edgeware alongside the Mayor of London Boris Johnson, Mr. Osborne unveiled a package of housing investments for the capital, including the establishment of a London Land Commission – based at the Greater London Authority – which will be tasked with identifying brownfield land suitable for development.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Mayor also confirmed the creation of nine new Housing Zones, which will receive œ260m of new investment to support and accelerate housing development on brownfield land, delivering up to 30,000 new homes – of which around a third will be affordable homes.
Chancellor George Osborne said:
“This month [February 2015], London has surpassed the peak population reached over 70 years ago. For many years in between it declined in size as people left the city to look for better housing.
“It’s a reminder that there’s nothing inevitable about London growing – and that if we want to see the current growth continue, we have to solve London’s acute housing problem”.
London’s first Housing Zones will be in the boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Bexley, Ealing, Royal Borough of Greenwich, Haringey, Harrow, Hounslow, Lewisham, Wandsworth. It is estimated that they will unlock the redevelopment of 1897.42 hectares of brownfield land across the capital, which is the equivalent of around 2,650 football pitches.
More across London are currently being considered, with around 20 expected to be designated later his year. Together, it is hoped that the Zones will provide over 50,000 new homes across the capital.
Mayor Boris Johnson said:
“As London’s population continues to boom, already at its highest since records began and with more growth predicted, housing is a huge challenge. We need to double house-building and provide a million more homes by 2025. These innovative new Housing Zones, the first of their kind in the UK, will trigger regeneration and turbo boost the transformation of the capital’s brownfield sites, creating tens of thousands of new homes for hard working Londoner in first class new neighbourhoods.
He added:
“We will not solve the problem without massively expanding the supply of housing and the plans confirmed today [February 20] will help do that, which is fantastic for our city.”
