Zoning in on outer London
EXPERTS SAYS SUBURBS NEED TO BUILD MORE OF THE CAPITAL’S NEW HOMES
OUTER London boroughs need to build thousands more homes to make up for the fact that inner London is shouldering most of the burden, trade experts have claimed.
Research published this year by London First and Grant Thornton UK LLP, shows that three-quarters of London’s new homes in 2017 were built in Transport for London (TfL) zones 1 to 3.
The highest numbers of homes were built in Zone 2 with 10,166 – 38% of London’s total.
Zone 5 however, which includes some of Hounslow and Hillingdon, delivered by far the smallest numbers of new homes with 1,029 – just 4% of the total, and Zone 6 which includes some of Hillingdon, 2,249 homes – 9%.
London mayor Sadiq Khan has now set a target under the London Plan – currently under consultation – to build 66,000 homes per year which has dramatically increased the targets for the outer London boroughs.
Under the plan, Hounslow would have to increase its build target from 822 units per year to 2,180, Hillingdon from 559 to 1,553 and Ealing from 1,297 to 2,807.
Hounslow Council leader Steve Curran, said: “The new London Plan sets out a new housing allocation target for Hounslow of 21,800 over the next 10 years – or 2,180 units per year.
“This represents an increase of 165% from our previous annual target of 822 units per year.
“The London plan also sets out the Mayor’s target for securing 50% of all new homes as affordable homes. In addition, the London Plan seeks to accommodate a majority of new homes for London in the outer London boroughs, which it has assessed as having greatest land available to accommodate new housing growth.
Mr Curran said an equally important challenge is meeting the need for affordable homes.
He said: “Hounslow alongside many other London boroughs is facing a major crisis in housing. At the heart of which is the lack of supply of truly affordable homes to cater for those in greatest housing need.
“That is why we have pledges to significantly increase the number of social housing units secured in the borough over the next four years.”
But there is still pressure to build even more.
London First and Grant Thornton experts say the 66,000 target will be impossible to meet unless far more planning applications which are submitted are actually brought to fruition and that outer London boroughs need to consider building much more densely to meet the housing need.
They say the capital seems so far able to only build a fraction of the 66,000 target, completing just 26,458 homes in 2017.
There was a record number of planning applications in 2017 with nearly 80,000 being made, it is claimed.
But it states the number of homes actually given planning permission continues to fall, from 54,941 in 2014 to just 48,024 in 2017.
Ian Tasker, director of government and infrastructure advisory at Grant Thornton UK LLP, said: “We are still falling seriously short of the level of housebuilding needed to combat the ongoing housing crisis. Permission rates for applications in London have fallen for the fourth consecutive year while the increase in completions has been marginal.
“With the Mayor’s target now set at 66,000 homes, we simply do not have enough permissions in the pipeline to reach this number. Without dramatic change and more direct intervention to find out why we are failing to substantially increase this output, this target is not going to be achieved; we need to address this now.
He added: “To stand a chance of effectively tackling this problem we need to make better use of land and increase housing density.”