The draft of London mayor Sadiq Khan’s new London Plan, published Thursday 16 July, proposes moving the threshold for affordable homes back to 35% for “as many boroughs as possible” from 2028.
Last month, three London councils – Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Lewisham – launched a legal challenge to stop Khan’s planned cut to the affordable housing quota from 35% to 20%.
Tower Hamlets executive mayor Lutfur Rahman said the shift showed that the legal challenge worked.
“Just weeks after we launched legal proceedings, City Hall has made this concession, accepting the fundamental premise of the arguments we have advanced in our Judicial Review claim, brought jointly with Hackney and Lewisham councils and backed by seven councils across London,” Rahman said.
He said Tower Hamlets and other councils were delivering “high levels” of affordable housing already and that “this is precisely what would be prevented by a blanket cut to 20%”.
‘Developers’ profits prioritised’
“However, these proposals do not go far enough,” Rahman added.
“Without any clear justification, City Hall would still press ahead with its devastating ‘emergency measures’ until 2028. That would mean losing thousands of affordable homes over the next two years – homes which, once lost, we will never get back, while hundreds of thousands of families languish on housing waiting lists and one million Londoners are trapped in overcrowded or uninhabitable accommodation.”
He continued: “At a time when one in every 21 children in London is homeless – at least one homeless child in every classroom – we cannot stand by while developers’ profits are prioritised over the genuinely affordable homes our communities so desperately need.”
The draft plan proposes using City Hall’s planning powers to build as many as 558,000 homes by 2037.
The mayor’s office said housebuilding faced a “perfect storm” of high interest rates, rising material costs, the legacy of the pandemic, a shortage of skilled workers and Brexit.
It said the 35% affordable homes quota was a “long-term ambition” and that boroughs can move up bands if they can prove the viability of schemes.
Such schemes would need national government support for necessary transport and community infrastructure, however.
Building on some green belt
The plan prioritises brownfield land for development, but the mayor said evidence showed that some areas of green belt land were needed for housing and may be considered for release where sufficient transport infrastructure exists.
Khan first laid out this policy in May last year.
Any green belt building proposal would need to deliver substantial affordable housing, improve public access to green space and achieve biodiversity net gain.
Dealing with heat
As human-caused climate change raises temperatures in London, the draft plan asks developers to use practical design features such as shading, natural ventilation and building orientation to help buildings stay cool naturally.
Applicants will need to demonstrate how heat risk has been considered holistically for the whole development, including public and communal spaces, to mitigate urban heat-island effects.
Developers should avoid extraneous glazing and design external window shading that occupants can control.
They should also provide dynamic overheating modelling to show how passive measures are working.
The plan accepts that air conditioning in new buildings may be needed if passive measures and low-energy, low-cost mechanical measures are not enough according to technical assessments published by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE).
This is especially the case for hospitals, care homes and schools.
‘Affordability crisis is a challenge to capital’s prospects’
“The new plan is about doing everything possible to meet the challenges we face on housing, as well as ensuring we deliver good growth, protect London’s nightlife, revitalise local high streets, and support the industries that will be crucial to London’s future economic success,” Khan said.
James Stevens, director of cities at the Home Builders Federation, said: “London’s housing affordability crisis is a challenge to the capital’s economic and social prospects, so it is encouraging that the mayor is focusing on improving the viability of new housing in this draft London Plan.
“Housing delivery has declined in recent years, so a renewed emphasis on reducing administrative complexity and a streamlined planning process is welcome. We look forward to engaging constructively through the consultation to ensure these positive intentions translate into accelerated delivery on the ground.”
Londoners are invited to take part in the consultation, which runs from now to 15 October 2026.
