The GLA is rightly determined to get homes built faster. Last week’s joint announcement with MHCLG is a helpful collection of emergency measures which, alongside central government's brownfield passports, new homes accelerator programme and other initiatives, are intended to fast-track a planning route for developers to "build, baby, build". But when you look more closely, the system remains difficult, slow and riddled with contradictions.
The temporary CIL relief for brownfield sites applies only to certain qualifying types of development and within specific timeframes. Why is grey belt land, which could deliver thousands of homes, excluded? At the same time, developers are facing a new Building Safety Levy, due to take effect on 1 October 2026, and which could add up to £100 per square metre in extra costs for new build in some boroughs in the capital. Is the government giving with one hand and taking it straight back with the other?
