They are not hard to find. Across London there are more than 50 new home “ghost sites” where building work has halted mid-project. They have been left padlocked and abandoned, an eerie memorial to London’s seemingly never-ending housing crisis. Take Afrex House in Brent near Wembley Stadium for example. The plans for the canalside development that should be providing 31 new apartments won planning consent in 2018. But work on the scheme stopped in 2023 when developer Inland Homes went into administration. Not a brick has been laid since.
More than 5,000 homes are stuck in stasis, in some cases because the developer has gone bust, in others because the market is so weak work has been deliberately put on hold. It is not a good look for Sadiq Khan, nor for a Labour government that has pledged to build 1.5 million new homes by 2029 at a rate of 300,000 a year. To have any chance of hitting that target, London will have to contribute at least 50,000 annually.
