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A new report from the Home Builders Federation reveals that housing delivery in London is in a major crisis and warns that home building targets will be unachievable without intervention to improve the deliverability of homes in the capital.
The collapse of house-building under Sadiq Khan is a major factor in the parallel failure of the Starmer regime,
With the capital supposed to deliver 440,000 of the Government’s unattainable promise of 1.5 million new homes target by 2030, housing delivery indicators continue to head in the wrong direction with both housing completions and planning permission approvals falling year-on-year, putting this at significant risk.
The Mind the Gap report highlights that only 30,000 homes were completed in London in the year to June 2025, down 12% from the previous year and way below the 2019/20 peak.
Planning permissions have also taken a nosedive, dropping to their lowest level since records began in 2006, with just 966 projects approved in the 12 months to June 2025.
The number of new home building sites starting has plummeted by 38%. With the Government’s Standard Method setting a requirement for London to deliver 88,000 homes a year, output would need to more than double, increasing by 175%, to meet that goal. A competent mayor would help to put this right, but with Khan in charge, Londoners have no hope.
Londoners face the highest barriers to home ownership in the country, and a first-time buyer would need to save 50% of their discretionary income for more than 13 years to afford a deposit, with average deposits now amounting to nearly seven times annual income after bills. The house price-to-earnings ratio stands at 11 in London, compared to 7.7 nationally, and the average cost of a first home is now 17 times the net annual salary of a 22– to 29-year-old.
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Is Khan really “Islamifying London”, or merely helping Starmer & Co turn it into a run-down twin fior Sodom and Gomorrah?
With the indigenous population shrinking as the demographic winter begins to bite, the primary underlying factor in London’s house crisis is the Boris/Keir immigration wave, coming as it does on top of decades of lax immigration policy under all the Westminster parties. Net Zero mania – again the work of the whole of Westminster, not merely Milliband – is another way in which the elite are making life extremely hard for ordinary people.
The report identifies several further factors behind the capital’s declining housing delivery. Lengthy planning delays remain a key barrier, exacerbated by the complexity of the current London Plan, which includes 88 separate residential policies on top of local and national rules. This makes the process more costly and time-consuming, with many developments rendered unviable.
The Building Safety Regulator is also having a disproportionate impact in London, with the capital’s reliance on higher-rise development. As of mid-2025, almost 10,000 homes have been stuck in the Gateway Two process for more than six months. When combined with other policy costs, such as dual staircase requirements, carbon offset charges, and per-square-metre levies under the Building Safety and Mayoral Construction Infrastructure Levy, the financial burden on developers, particularly those building apartment schemes, has become unsustainable.
London’s 35% Affordable Housing requirement is another major constraint. Few schemes can meet the threshold, as the lack of Registered Providers willing to take on Section 106 units compounds the problem. As a result, most developments are forced into viability negotiations, delaying progress.
Brownfield development, essential to London’s pipeline, is also under threat due to high remediation costs and new policy burdens such as Biodiversity Net Gain and Landfill Tax changes.
The report urges the Mayor of London to accelerate the pledge to assess green belt land for development review and lower the affordable housing fast-track threshold to 25% to unlock stalled developments. It also calls for a streamlined and more practical London Plan, with local energy policies brought into line with national regulations, and exemptions introduced for smaller schemes to reduce unnecessary burdens.
Additionally, HBF calls for Government to help restore market confidence by reintroducing a targeted home ownership scheme and cancelling the introduction of the Building Safety Levy, which Will further impact builders’ ability to delivery new homes, and Affordable Housing in particular. Addressing delays in the Section 106 market and resolving electrical capacity constraints are also identified as critical to increasing housing delivery across the capital.
Neil Jefferson, Chief Executive of the Home Builders Federation, said: “The findings of Mind the Gap should be a major wake-up call for Government and the Mayor of London.
“The capital needs an urgent overhaul of housing policy if it is to support the housing needs of Londoners. London Plan policies combined with additional government taxes on new homes, onerous processes to get higher-rise schemes approved and challenging market conditions have effectively made London a no-go zone for housing investment.”
“Intervention is desperately needed to support first-time buyers, with Londoners facing the biggest barriers to home ownership in the country.”
“If Government is to stand a chance at making its aspirational 1.5 million homes target a reality, ministers must prioritise action to reverse the alarming decline in housing delivery across the capital.”
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