London should benefit from the Government’s plans to create more new towns, with at least one built in the capital to address a chronic shortage of homes across the city, according to the latest report spearheaded by BusinessLDN.

With London’s boroughs forced to spend £4m daily on temporary accommodation, BusinessLDN argues the capital should be a test bed for the new towns policy, given it has the political framework, infrastructure links and range of potential sites needed to establish new settlements at speed. This will help kickstart the Government’s ambitious housebuilding programme and accelerate growth.

‘The case for a new town in London’, published today, has been developed by BusinessLDN in partnership with leading consultants, architects and planners, including Arup, DP9, Kanda Consulting and Volterra, as well as award-winning barrister Zack Simons of Landmark Chambers. Its publication coincides with a government consultation on the future of new towns, which closes tomorrow.   

Jonathan Seager, Policy Delivery Director at BusinessLDN, said:​“If the Government wants to move fast on new towns, London has the connectivity, demand and political set-up needed to get spades in the ground swiftly. The city is uniquely placed to house multiple types of these developments as part of the drive by Ministers to hit ambitious housing and growth targets.

“Londoners are at the sharp end of the UK’s housing crisis. A quarter of people living in the city are in poverty after housing costs are taken into account, with challenges around availability and affordability also making it more difficult for businesses to recruit and retain staff. Building one or more new towns in the capital should be a no-brainer for both economic and social reasons.”

Tom Copley, Deputy Mayor of London for Housing, said: “The Mayor and I are determined to leave no stone unturned in boosting housing delivery in the capital, and to make the case for the measures needed to build more homes.

“The scale of London’s housing need and the challenges facing delivery mean we need to think radically about where the homes of the future will come from including where we can create additional new towns in and around the capital. We will continue to work hand in hand with housebuilders and the new Government to turn the tide on the legacy of recent years, helping to create a better, fairer London for everyone.”

London contributes around a quarter of the UK’s economic output but is facing a severe housing crisis. A fifth of households across England which are either homeless, or threatened by homelessness, are based in the capital. 

Within weeks of taking office, the Government issued a statement outlining its intention to deliver new towns in support of its housebuilding and sustainable growth aims. It stresses that any new town projects “must be well-connected, well-designed, sustainable and attractive places where people want to live”, with “infrastructure, amenities and services necessary to sustain thriving communities.”

The statement also envisages three different types of new towns: greenfield land, separate from other settlements; urban extensions; and urban regeneration schemes.

The new BusinessLDN report does not seek to pinpoint an exact location for a new town in London, instead it highlights how the capital scores well against key criteria the Government could use to assess potential sites and is well placed to accommodate any type of new town. 

With the Government setting out plans to unlock poor-quality parts of the green belt for housebuilding as part of a review of the National Planning Policy Framework, the new study notes that 60% of London’s green belt is within 2km of an existing rail or tube station.

A number of these locations overlap with Opportunity Areas – parts of the capital that have already been earmarked in the London Plan as especially apt for accommodating new homes, jobs and infrastructure.   

The capital’s unique political powers and structures make it a comparatively easy place to launch new towns, the study suggests, given London already has the legal structures to facilitate strategic plan-making through the London Plan – the spatial development strategy for the capital.

City Hall can also create Mayoral Development Corporations and is responsible for Transport for London’s expanding network. The Mayor has also established Places for London, the property arm of Transport for London, and detailed plans to establish a City Hall-owned developer to support accelerated delivery of homes in the capital. These bodies may be well-placed to support the development of new towns in the capital.

The new study also highlights potential public appetite for new towns in the capital, with polling by YouGov showing the majority (65%) of Londoners support development in areas with significant unmet housing need.¹      

Kathryn Firth, Director of Masterplanning and Urban Design at Arup, said: “The opportunities London provides for substantial new communities – urban extensions – should not be underestimated. Intensification at London’s periphery may catalyse improvements to the existing, often ageing, infrastructure alongside adaptive reuse of existing buildings.”

Karen Alcock, Founder and MD at Kanda Consulting, said: ​“Delivering more new homes in London is a vital priority for the Mayor and all 32 London boroughs. The creation of a new town in the Capital offers the best opportunity to do this at scale, supported by Government momentum and urgency to help unblock planning red-tape. There is huge political appetite and will to deliver this change, but undertaking comprehensive community engagement to truly understand what communities want from new development will be vital to success. Change must happen with and not to residents. We are excited be a part of this important report.”

Craig Tabb, Board Director at DP9, said: “London offers a significant track record of delivering large scale new settlements, neighbourhoods and urban extensions. To ensure any future new towns or urban extensions can be delivered at pace, it will be important to take lessons from this track record – the good and bad – and use these to inform future plans.”