Building for success

Finding suitable land, in the right quantities and the right places, is fundamental to our efforts to lift London’s housing supply up to the required 49,000 homes a year to meet the demands of the city’s growing population.

While efforts by the mayor of London, Carillion, Igloo and Genesis to build a floating village in Royal Victoria Dock will hopefully confound Mark Twain’s famous observation on land that “they ain’t making it any more”, we do need to vastly accelerate delivery above the current rate of an average of 27,000 additional homes a year.

Public land is not a panacea. In volume terms, it represents only a small fraction of the development capacity needed with much of it already under construction.

The Greater London Authority’s (GLA) progress in procuring housing delivery on land inherited from the Homes and Communities Agency, London Development Agency and London Thames Gateway Development Corporation has been rapid. Now, 99% of the developable land is in development or procurement.

We are keen to extend the lessons from our successes to other public sector landowners through the London Land Commission, with a focus on driving housing delivery as fast as possible combined with appropriate returns to these bodies. Through the commission, the GLA is working in close partnership with London boroughs and national government.

Over time, this will lead to a comprehensive register of all public land in London. But it is important that the logging of every single verge, drying area and garage site does not distract from the bigger picture.

Instead we are using a strategic focus on where housing delivery should take place, being guided by transport nodes, Opportunity Areas and Housing Zones, to identify the first areas appropriate for intervention.

In some of these areas the majority of land will be in public ownership, and some could be owned by different agencies that the GLA can work with to help broker a mutually beneficial outcome. In most there will be a need for involvement of private sector landowners and/or targeted acquisitions to maximise the development opportunity.

Whether land is in public ownership or not is largely an historic accident which should not hamper current plans to build the homes London needs.

“It is important that the logging of every single verge, drying area and garage site does not distract from the bigger picture.”

This same spatial approach is already yielding positive results in London’s Housing Zones. These are areas of strategic priority for growth for the London boroughs who have proposed them, where a partnership with the GLA can unlock or accelerate the delivery of at least 1,000 homes.

The GLA has made available £400m of flexible funding which is being used in a range of creative ways including supporting bridges, station upgrades and civic centre relocations, as well as other transport infrastructure, development finance and increasing the supply of affordable homes.

We are about to announce our 19^th and 20^th Housing Zones and are already forecast to exceed the target of 50,000 homes over the next decade. Many of these are already tapping into planned transport improvements that need small amounts of further funding to maximise the opportunity.

All zones have developed a robust strategy for building homes as fast as possible, in locally appropriate ways.

Overall just over a quarter of the homes are intended to be long-term, high-quality private rented homes, which can be absorbed by the market much faster than private sale. There are also proposals for a range of other tenures, including around a third of the homes being affordable, many of which will be shared ownership, for which demand is massive. There has also been an intelligent mix of different types of homes, including family homes and homes designed for older people.

The progress we have made is as a direct result of the ambition and determination shown by the bidders.

In almost all cases they are strongly backed locally by high-level political and business commitment. This enthusiasm, combined with areas rich in opportunity, with space to accommodate thousands of homes, gives the programme firm foundations for success.

We are now moving rapidly into the delivery phase. The first Housing Zone contracts are already signed and many more are progressing fast through due diligence. The key features of the programme, at all stages, have been flexibility in how the GLA works with partners and competitive pressure to ensure that zones move from bids into delivery as soon as possible.

Beyond Housing Zones I am sure there is more we can do to support our partners to take advantage of wider land opportunities and would welcome discussions as to how we could work together to create additional housing supply in London.

Jamie Ratcliff, assistant director for housing, Greater London Authority