Wednesday 04 March 2026 5:16 am  |  Updated:  Tuesday 03 March 2026 11:24 am

It’ll take more than planning reform to get London building again

By: Melanie Leech

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London isn’t just facing a housing delivery downturn. It’s facing a double development whammy of falling housing starts combined with a deep decline in the pipeline of new commercial development coming forward, says Melanie Leech

Down, down, deeper and down go the lyrics from a track by Status Quo from the early 1970s. A decade that despite all of its difficulties with economic stagnation, we might  welcome with open arms right now from a housing delivery perspective.

In this case down, down, deeper and down relates as much to overall development activity across the capital as to the poll ratings of the UK’s two most established political parties. A point that will undoubtedly be tested to the limit come the 7 May when Londoners take to the ballot box for the first time since the general election.

Quite rightly the majority of the focus recently has been on London’s poor record of housing delivery over the last couple of years, with starts-on-site plunging to lows not seen since the depths of the global financial crisis of nearly 20 years ago. Even the previously fast-growing professionalisation of the private rented sector through Build to Rent, which are residential buildings created exclusively for the rental market, has not been immune, with construction starts in........

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