
London Planning Committee Report 2024
Consent or Dissent?
Cavendish’s London Planning Report – The Year of Lost Housing
Planning in London is increasingly complex and, despite the almost universal political mantra to ‘build more homes’, almost all significant residential applications are subject to delays and uncertainty.
Since 2019, Cavendish has monitored the role of London’s planning committees in driving housing supply, giving us a unique insight into the Boroughs that are open to growth, and those which are not.
London’s lost housing
In this year’s ‘Consent or Dissent?’, we conclude that 2023 has been the year of ‘lost’ housing, with 14,354 fewer homes approved last year compared to 2022 – a 33% drop.
We also found a collapse in the number of affordable housing given the green light, dropping by 48%.
Indeed, only seven local planning authorities managed to meet or exceed their annual housing target, with 23 registering less than 75% of their target. 2 London Boroughs didn’t approve a single residential application in the whole of 2023.
Habitual underperformance
Our findings mean that the next Mayor of London, whoever is elected, may already be hamstrung in terms of their ability to deliver new homes in a range of types, sizes and tenures. Sadiq Khan’s pledge to deliver 40,000 new social homes is already looking exceptionally challenging.
The shortfall seen in 2023 could of course have been made up for by previous over-delivery across the capital in earlier years. Yet across London many Boroughs have habitually underperformed year-on-year, leaving no ‘wiggle room’.
Our report is a must-read for anyone working in London’s built environment and serves as a crucial resource for understanding which councils pose challenges and how others have evolved, particularly since the 2022 local council elections.
You can download the full report below.