The GLA’s official consultation on the draft London Plan closed on October 15th at 5pm but there was a further week to respond to amended housing targets for some boroughs.
One anomaly is that ‘small sites’ are supposed to deliver a significant amount of the housing target, yet the ‘Small Sites Design Code’, which is intended to fast track applications, has not yet been finalised and is still out for consultation. Just Space submitted a note on this.
We are reading and gathering together the responses from Just Space network groups and others on a dedicated page here – if you are happy for yours to be included please let us know.
Meanwhile another separate consultation is taking place on the ‘London View Management Framework’ which for decades has protected certain famous views, such as of St Paul’s Cathedral, from being blocked by new buildings. Given the government’s drive (under the influence of developers) to water down all restrictions on development, the changes to the LVMF are likely to be a concern if you value those traditional sights. More on this soon.
These are some of the responses to the official consultation on the draft London Plan, which ended October 15th 2026. The prevailing view is that the plan is ‘unsound‘ because, in the language used by planning inspectors, it is ‘not justified, not positively prepared, not effective, or not consistent with national policy’.
After years of determined grassroots organising, Warren Farm has finally been secured as London’s newest Local Nature Reserve — a landmark victory wrested from the brink of development by thousands of residents who refused to let one of Ealing’s last great meadows be destroyed. The 24.8‑hectare rewilded landscape, home to a quarter of London’s breeding Skylarks as well as Barn Owls, kestrels, rare clovers and threatened invertebrates, is now protected because campaigners mobilised, documented its ecological value, and held the council to account.
This declaration is more than a policy decision: it is the result of sustained community pressure, a 26,000‑strong petition, and years of public challenge to redevelopment plans that would have erased a vital urban wildlife refuge. By securing Warren Farm’s recognition as a Local Nature Reserve, campaigners have gained statutory protection for a site that has become a sanctuary for both nature and residents seeking green space, solace and connection.
The win strengthens the Brent River Park corridor and sets a precedent for defending other threatened meadows across West London. Conservationists and local groups are already pushing for neighbouring sites — Trumper’s Field, Jubilee Meadow, Blackberry Corner and Fox Meadow — to follow Warren Farm’s lead and gain full LNR status. For many, this moment is proof that organised communities can shift the direction of urban planning and reclaim land for nature, climate resilience and public wellbeing.
For further information and commentary by those involved, please follow the links to:
Minister for Planning Matthew Pennycook MP joined Jules Pipe, London’s Deputy Mayor for Planning, and Tom Copley, London’s Deputy Mayor for Housing, to announce yet more gifts to developers to increase their bank balances
The three people charged with responsibility for responding to the housing affordability crisis in London – and the plight of hundreds of thousands of homeless families and children, as well as the entire planning system – met with thousands of developers and assorted hucksters in the UK’s largest sale of public land in the UK at Leeds earlier this month, known as UKREiiF.
The three politicians were there to explain to their wealthy hosts that the next London Plan will be “streamlined”, jettisoning numerous detailed policies and protections, in an effort to make profitable development easier.
Developers have consistently insisted that the minimum 20% profit which they expect on all projects is jeopardised by requirements to build safe and useful homes. They are particularly annoyed by the Mayor’s attempt to get even a meagre proportion of affordable housing: but they are also keen on removing high standards of quality (such as dual aspect homes, essential in the current heatwave) and post-Grenfell safety requirements.
The Deputy Mayor said that the London Plan would reduce and simplify the rules for developers, making schemes more profitable. The oligarchic housebuilders – who control much identified housing land in London, which they leave empty to keep house prices high – have almost stopped building over the past 18 months, in order to clear the glut of inappropriate yet expensive 1 and 2 bed which they insist on building.
The government blames the Mayor and boroughs for demanding too much from developers and not meeting the government’s imposed target of 88,000 newly built homes a year, a level of build which has never been achieved in the past 100 years.
Jules Pipe explained on behalf of the Mayor that the new London Plan will be “clearer and easier to navigate for the housing industry and councils, stripping away duplication and simplifying policies that have been interpreted oppressively by boroughs”.
Mr Pipe claimed that “building more homes, particularly social and affordable homes, is a top priority for the Mayor. It’s a moral duty for us all to tackle the crisis in homelessness and make housing more affordable for working Londoners” although he promised no new public funds for the essential social infrastructure of council housing; nor did he propose any pressure on the oligarchic landbanking housebuilders to build out the 500,000 homes for which they already have permission.
At the conference, Deputy Mayor for Housing Copley claimed that new powers secured through the English Devolution and Community Act passed last month will allow City Hall a lower threshold for calling in applications. It will also give the Mayor renewed powers to grant planning permission through Mayoral Development Orders. It is understood that officials have been instructed to scope out major brownfield sites near transport hubs that could benefit from this.
Minister Matthew Pennycook concluded that “the case for fundamentally transforming the housing system that we inherited is unarguable. By any metric, it has been an abject failure” – but then promised more of the same “build, build, build” policies pursued by the previous Conservative government, but with rocket boosters attached.
A Just Space members meeting on 19 May discussed the novel and complex process under way in many of the London boroughs as Labour cedes seats but tries not to cede control. Members reported on the coalition-building prospects for a number of boroughs and we shall be adding links to useful analysis as we come accross it. Do use the comments below if you have suggestions.
It is enormously important that we get copies of the Alternative Plan for London as a Caring City in to the hands and minds of newly elected councillors. Members went away with bags full of copies.
The discussion was introduced by a short talk from Michael Ball, coordinator. Download his slides here which contain valuable results, data and maps.
At the end of the week, in which all the bargaining between party groups was completed, the Prime Minister surprised us by banning Labour Councillors from doing deals with Greens
The meeting also heard and discussed a talk by Sarah Goldzweig on the third anniversary of POP – Protect Our Places – a campaign to defend valued community services, including traditional retail markets, many of whom are Just Space members. Download PDF.
10 March 2026 Just Space has submitted strong objection to the government’s proposed draft NPPF
“… by appearing to destroy the core mechanisms at the heart of planning since 1947, it is an intensely disturbing document that seems contemptuous of planning itself. It certainly goes far further even than the previous Tory government in its utter determination to wreck the cornerstone of the planning system, local decision-making.”
If the GLA were serious about impact they would have started their analysis right at the beginning of making the plan. Then the assessments could alert them to bad policies with likely poor outcomes and could test improvements. In fact this Impact Assessment has yet to start and plan making is well under way.
The GLA has been consulting on the scope and design of the Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) and we find it to be weak in many respects and biased in ways which would make it blind to the downsides of many controversial policies. Policies will gain plus points for growth and plus points for almost all extra density. How can density policy and tall building policy be evaluated if increases in density are the measuring rod for success?
Another weakness of the approach is the lack of analysis of why earlier plans have failed – especially failed over 25 years to produce anything like enough low-rent social housing. The need for it is unchallenged but the backlog of unmet need mounts. Without much better monitoring, evaluation and explanation it will be next to impossible for the Assessment to point towards better policies.
Many of the criticisms of the London development process come down to the effects of prioritising developer and land owner profits in the assessment of projects, captured in the phrase ‘subject to viability’ and its application to everything in the plan.
Is there no alternative? The regulations require a strategic assessment of the plan against reasonable alternatives which have been explicitly or implicitly rejected. Just Space is working on an Alternative Plan for London which differs radically from the Mayor’s and the GLA has no excuse for not exploring some of the main alternatives that Londoners call for: less pressure for growth, a more polycentric metropolitan region with less need to travel, more care and support for existing enterprise.
Read our consultation response in detail. Download here.It has been prepared by a group of JustSpace members and others have been consulted on drafts. Particularly valuable inputs have come from the Southwark Law Centre.
CPRE London has submitted a strong critique aimed at evaluation professionals. Reading it is educational. Download here.
For the previous London Plan City Hall planners got the IIA seriously wrong and were required to go back and do a lot of extra work. Earlier posts have the details.
Speakers from a number of threatened estates testified to the injustices and miseries increasingly imposed on tenants and residents as the increasingly profit-driven ‘regeneration’ machine operates across the city. Tenants from the Lesnes Estate at Thamsmead, Brick Lane, Aylesbury, West Kentish Town and many others spoke, as did Joseph Jones from the London tenants Federation and Richard Lee from Just Space – the 2 organisations which set up and manage the EstateWatch.London web site.
Richard Lee of Just Space said “The question for our tables to discuss is about the resources and practical measures that are needed to protect tenants whose estates are under threat.
Knowledge about housing and planning is central to this, as we have heard, but other types of knowledge are very important too. Tenants need to know their rights and have access to legal advice. They also need to know about tools they can use to make the case for an alternative to demolition, such as retrofit surveys and trauma informed practice as part of a community health impact assessment.
Most of us here need more support to be able to do the above, but what about tenants on estates who are not here! We very much need resources for an outreach programme. How can the London Assembly support this? Where else do we go for resources and how do we coordinate this? Coordination of our activities is a big issue. Zoe has brought us together today, but we need a space that brings us together more often. We are asked today to give our ideas for policy change but without resourcing communities on the ground, good policies will never be put into practice.”
The GLA is required to do a whole series of impact studies as they prepare the draft London Plan – to alert them to bad impacts and highlight scope for improvements. They are also required to consult the public about the scope of the studies they plan to do. The consultation about this draft Scoping Report could have been done months or a year ago but finally it is happening now.
The consultation was badly announced just before christmas and with very short notice for responses. We protested strongly and the GLA has extended the consultation until 13 February.
All responses must be made in writing to londonplan@london.gov.uk and Just Space will be compiling a collective response. Individuals and groups are also encouraged to respond.
The Just Space response will be coordinated by Michael Edwards, Jed Holloway and others. Please get in touch if you want to contribute. A first reaction by Jed Holloway is here to download.A later composite draft response is added here 9 February. Do use any or all of it in your own.
The Integrated Impact Assessment (IIA) covers requirements relating to Sustainability Appraisal (SA)/Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA), Health Impact Assessment (HIA), and Community Safety Assessment (CSA). It proceeds by defining the objectives against which the plan should be judged, then sub-objectives and detailed questions. It should deal with alternatives.
Our previous experience in 2019 was shocking. The Panel of Inspectors at the Examination in Public were persuaded by us that the draft IIA was of such inadequacy that the London Plan team were required to produce additional appraisals of the impact each and every policy in the draft plan would have on each of the groups protected in the Equality Act. Links to back story in our post of 5 January.
(Page amended 26 January to add the download link to Jed Holloway’s text)
Friday 23 January. This consultation is now closed. Our Just Space responses to the Mayor and to MHCLG are here. It is a devastating expose of wrong-headed proposals. Some other responses are at the foot of the page. Just Space response to Mayor Just Space response to MHCLG
Despite 90,000 homeless children and 300,000 people on housing waiting lists across London, Mayor Sadiq Khan is consulting on proposals to reduce the amount of affordable and social rent housing developers are required to provide! The government is consulting on related proposals to let some developers make less contributions to local infrastructure.
The consultation on a package of measures to help developers ends this Thurs 22nd Jan – and we’re urging everyone to submit a strong objection.
Next day comes a brilliant article in the Financial Times by Britain’s best housing journaliist Pete Apps. It’s not about the London proposals but a broad welcome to the slowdown in housebuilding and falling prices. This could be the beginning of the end of house prices escalation. If you are able to read this article, do.
