Homes for London
On Thursday 23rd October, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published a policy statement setting out new measures to support and accelerate housebuilding in London.
This package is designed to “make a material difference to the viability of a number of prospective and existing schemes across the capital” and boost the number of new homes delivered in the next few years. This comes as more than a third of London boroughs recording zero housebuilding starts in the first quarter of 2025.
These measures are also designed to sit alongside the Government’s reforms to the planning system and funding for affordable homes, alongside wider changes to the Building Safety Regulator’s processes.
The key measures are summarised below.
Temporary Borough Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) Relief
This includes 50 per cent of borough CIL relief available for qualifying schemes which commit to delivering at least 20 per cent affordable housing in line with the new time-limited planning route, and additional relief available at higher levels of affordable housing. Affordable housing would be sought via Section 106 commitments instead, to minimise opportunity for CIL to impact the viability of development.
This would apply to qualifying schemes on brownfield land, commencing before December 2028.
Amendments to guidance that can constrain density
Under the proposals, changes would be made to London Plan guidance that can constrain density. This includes flexibility in the standards relating to dual aspect dwellings and ‘dwellings around the core’, in order to optimise sites and layouts. There would also be a reduction in requirements for cycle storage, both in terms of quantity and how the storage is provided.
This streamlining of requirements would be delivered through updates to the Housing Design Standards LPG and Policy D6 in the London Plan.
Time-limited planning route
This measure includes a new, time-limited planning route, to sit alongside the existing Fast Track and Viability Tested routes. In particular, this should allow eligible residential schemes on private land that can provide at least 20 per cent affordable housing to proceed without an upfront viability assessment and to access grant funding.
The time-limited planning route would be available until March 2028 or the publication of the revised London Plan (whichever is earlier), with the Local Planning Authority needing to issue decisions by this deadline.
Alongside this, the ‘Section 73’ process to vary a condition of a planning permission would be amended to no longer allow this to be an alternative means of reconsidering fundamental questions of scheme viability or planning obligations. This would be clarified in updated Planning Practice Guidance.
Planning powers
This includes the expansion of the Mayor of London’s powers to review and call-in applications of potential strategic importance, in order to support housing delivery and maximise densities.
The first relates to schemes of over 50 homes where a borough is minded to refuse; and the second to Green Belt or Metropolitan Open Land developments. Alongside this, it is proposed to streamline the Mayor’s decision making process on called in applications, allowing the use of ‘Written Representations’ which should shorten time frames for decisions; and the use of Mayoral Development Orders for strategic schemes without the need for borough consent.
This would be implemented through amendments to the Town and Country Planning (Mayor of London) Order 2008.
City Hall Developer Investment Fund
The final proposal includes new funding to establish a City Hall Developer Investment Fund, with an initial allocation of £322m of grant investment. This will allow the Mayor to take a more direct and interventionist role to unlock thousands of new homes and accelerate delivery. This initial funding is proposed to be in place from 2026-27.
Conclusion
These measures will be consulted on over six weeks from November 2025, with the aim of updating relevant planning policy and legislation without delay. We will continue to monitor this on behalf our clients
Read the full Policy Statement here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/support-for-housebuilding-in-london
If you have any questions in relation to upcoming sites, or would like our help in preparing a consultation response, please contact the Firstplan team.
Article prepared by: Amy Murray
Contact: info@firstplan.co.uk