Monday 20 July 2026 11:00 am

| Updated:

Monday 20 July 2026 2:48 pm

Khan said London was "proud to be the tech capital of Europe"

London isn’t building and the draft London Plan put forward by the Mayor last week will do very little to change that, says Sam DumitriuIt is unwise to take on additional responsibilities when you are failing to fulfill those you already have. As Mayor of London, one of the soon-to-be Lord Khan of Tooting’s biggest responsibilities is to get London building. Well, London isn’t building. And the draft London Plan put forward last week will do little to change that.London’s housing is Britain’s least affordable. Rent on a one-bed in the capital will set you back more than rent on a three-bed in any other region of the country. The ONS classifies areas with house prices five times higher than incomes as “severely unaffordable”. London’s prices are ten times incomes, reaching 20 times in some boroughs.This is why successive governments have committed to raising London’s overall housing target. While Labour’s annual 88,000 home target is fewer than the 100,000 that the Conservatives demanded, it still represented a massive increase against current building rates. London last built over 60,000 homes in the 1930s. Hitting the 88,000 target would require build-rates to effectively treble from their current level.No easy task, but achievable with the right policies. Tokyo alone starts over 140,000 homes a year, more than the whole of England. After Auckland allowed mid-rise development across three-quarters of the city in 2016, homebuilding roughly doubled citywide. Closer to home, Manchester’s skyline has changed beyond recognition with its city-centre population climbing from around 10,000 to nearly 100,000 in 15 years, on the back of some 25,000 new homes.Cities like Tokyo, Auckland, and Manchester show it can be done, but the draft London plan doesn’t even try. In fact, under Khan’s draft, London is planning to miss its target by over 30,000 homes per year.Targets aren’t everything. London has consistently built fewer homes than targeted in past London Plans. So, even if the headline target has barely budged, will the policies in the new plan bring London closer to meeting it?Maybe. There are some welcome moves.