Sadiq Khan has promised to get London building… again. It is not the first time he has promised new houses and then failed to deliver. In fact, since 2015, the year before Khan took office, new housing starts have declined by 70 per cent.
This time, things are apparently different. His radical new plan is to open up the green belt to developers to unlock the homes London desperately needs. He isn’t just promising to build more homes, but also to create a greener, cleaner London.
But this plan, which promises the earth, is doomed to fail.
He should be focusing on delivering the 300,000 homes that already have planning permission in London. We already have around seven years’ supply of permissions at the current build rate — he should be focusing on delivering these first.
So now it looks as though he is admitting defeat and instead encouraging urban sprawl, sacrificing our green belt, reducing the amount of green spaces available for Londoners, and failing to give them the homes they deserve. And crucially, it will miss the opportunity to make the green belt actually better for nature.
We often forget the important role that the green belt plays. It is used to rear livestock and grow crops to feed our nation, it protects Britain’s threatened biodiversity, and, perhaps most importantly for Londoners, it provides them with easy access to much-needed green space and nature.
If Khan wants to improve the environment and make it easier for Londoners to enjoy green spaces, he should be not only protecting but enhancing biodiversity inside the green belt, not destroying it.
Building in the centre of our city at a gentle density levels means we can have homes and nature
That means taking advantage of policies the last Conservative government introduced such as biodiversity net gain and environmental land management schemes, which aim to boost nature in the built environment and encourage more nature-friendly farming.
However, as well as expanding access to nature, we still need to get London building new houses. But that doesn’t mean just hitting housing targets. We should be building beautiful new homes and communities that Londoners want.
But from what I have seen so far Sadiq Khan is taking the wrong approach. Londoners don’t want new homes sprawling across the green belt. They don’t want homes that will only force them to move further away from their friends and jobs, increase their commuting time, and sacrifice London’s limited green spaces.
Instead of a glut of low density homes depriving Londoners of countryside and nature, they want new houses to be built while improving the environment around them. They want beauty, nature, and proximity to work, friends and family, and vital amenities.
This means building beautiful homes in the place people most want to live and where demand is highest: central London. Building in the centre of our city at a gentle density level means we can have homes and nature, rather than pitting them against each other. This would ensure that all Londoners can access nature-rich spaces, go home to their affordably priced home, and feel proud to be part of that community.
However, it seems it isn’t just Sadiq who doesn’t understand this, but the Labour government as well. Their new planning rules have actually reduced the Mayor’s housing targets by 9 per cent. Instead of focusing on building inside cities where house prices are highest, tackling the shortage of homes in urban areas, and providing the opportunity to give people the homes they want, they would rather take the easy option and deprive urban communities of green spaces and access to nature.
Londoners have had enough. They have had enough of the mayor’s promises on housing. They’ve had enough of not being able to have the homes they want. And now they’re at risk of losing their green spaces.
We need to listen to them. And that means building more beautiful homes that incorporate nature into their design in central London, and then enhancing nature in the green belt to give Londoners even greater access to nature.
David Simmonds is a Conservative MP and Shadow Housing Minister
