Think Tank Report Outlines Solutions for London's Housing Crisis

The Centre for Policy Studies published a report outlining the challenges facing London's housing market. The study found that London needs 1.1 million homes to meet targets, but annual ground broken on housing units averaged only 4,170 between 2024 and 2025 due to various factors including high building costs and regulatory complexity. The report recommends that scrapping Biodiversity Net Gain requirements for brownfield sites and raising environmental impact assessment thresholds could unlock hundreds of thousands of new homes.

The proposed policy shifts suggest that meeting existing housing targets could generate £15bn in economic activity and over £6bn a year in tax receipts. The study argues that these policy changes are necessary to resolve the capital's significant housing shortfall.