The 2026 Draft London Plan is published
Just Space believes that this plan is worse than ever before, and will have an irreparable and damaging effect on London over the next decade and beyond.
Read a brief summary here and a comparison with the Caring City alternative. A more detailed policy comparison is here.
We encouraged as many people as possible to have a say during the consultation ending 15 October and we publish some of the submissions here.
What next? There are two further consultations:
1) Small Sites Design Code: a quarter of London’s new housing will come from building on small sites, and the Design Code is an attempt to create a framework through which “schemes that comply with the Code should be considered acceptable in principle in design terms by local planning authorities”. This may mean these planning applications bypass planning committees altogether.
2) London View Management Framework: this protects 28 of the ‘strategic views’ of St Paul’s Cathedral, and the World Heritage Sites at Westminster, the Tower and Greenwich, including from the central London bridges. It has prevented many tall buildings, but allowed many more. This is the first review in 20 years.
Just Space hosted a half-day event on the draft London Plan on October 3rd where groups came to meet others, discuss common positions and find out how to make submissions:
– Slideshow on the new Plan download here
– TOPIC SHEETS see here. Compiled in working groups, these sheets describe policies and approaches taken in the Plan, sometimes including proposed alternatives.
Housing, Economy, Environment, Lifetime Neighbourhoods, Equalities, Transport.
– Just Space Alternative London Plan for a caring city (April 2026) covers many of the key issues and is a focus in responding to the Mayor’s proposals.
((Worksheet and Sample template for making an objection))
READ THE PLAN:
PDF of the whole Plan https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2026-09/Draft-London-Plan-2026-web-version.pdf
The Plan in separate chapters
https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-strategies/planning/london-plan/next-london-plan/draft-london-plan-consultation/draft-london-plan-consultation-resources
In addition to the many related documents linked from that page, many others including the housing market and land availability studies SHMA and SHLAA are tucked away in the London DataStore . There is also a new London viability study, on the London datastore site, with no link to either London Plan site or to the Evidence Base site. London Plan VIABILITY Study PHASE 1 REPORT Our thanks to Ian Gordon and Duncan Bowie whose detective tenacity discovered them.
You can contribute to all these arguments and keep in touch with the London Plan process via this page. Get involved by contacting us. Please send Just Space a copy of your submission, which will allow us to co-ordinate speakers at the Examination in Public.
Has the Mayor listened so far?
Just Space submitted comments and proposals in 2024 on the first stage of the new Plan, and made strong representations in 2025 on ‘Towards a new London Plan’.
The Mayor of London has been resistant to the participation of community groups in the lead-up to his new draft Plan, with far less co-operative working than in previous years. More on this here: Is the Mayor restricting our participation?
Later: a decision in May sub-contracts the management and analysis of consultation responses to TfL to leave the London Plan Team free to concentrate on the Plan itself. This sounds suspiciously like another device to marginalise community responses.
What is the London Plan?
It is the Mayor of London’s strategic planning policy for the whole of London, produced approximately every 5 years. It covers housing, design, social provision, the economy, heritage and culture, green space and the natural environment, sustainable infrastructure (air quality, emissions, waste), transport, and strategies and places for growth.
Legally the policy in the Plan must be taken into account by the 32 London Boroughs in their decision-making. The City of London must too, plus the Mayor’s Development Corporations at the Olympic Park and Old Oak Common.
The London Plan requires each borough’s Local Plan to be ‘in general conformity’ with it. These Local Plans are all at different stages of production: see the status of each Local Plan here. (A note on this: ‘Regulation 18’ is the first stage of Local Plan consultation. ‘Regulation 19’ is the second stage consultation on the finalised draft, which is followed by the Examination in Public.)
Do people have a say in the Plan?
Since the first London Plan in 2004, Just Space has worked to bring Londoners into the process of its production, and into its Examination in Public, to make the authorities aware of how their strategic policies can impact ordinary people. Community groups have brought unique evidence and knowledge that would not otherwise have been considered, and have initiated and influenced some improvements. Property developers and other special interest groups lobby strongly to get the Plan’s policies to benefit their interests.
Who is winning?
Private interests are winning the battle. Over the past 25 years the London Plan has encouraged the financialisation of property and the building of speculative housing that does not produce the homes we need or can afford – with a cost in carbon emissions that is not properly counted or controlled.
The truth is that the London Plan has proved unfit for purpose.