London’s City Hall, the Government and local boroughs have come together to form the London Land Commission - with the aim of freeing up publicly-owned land for new homes.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson and Housing Minister Brandon Lewis launched the Commission with news a database of all brownfield public land in London will be created by the end of the year.

Brownfield land to be targeted

The Commission will target brownfield land, following on from Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement he will reform planning in favour of this type of development.

The fresh steps follow previous work by the Mayor’s office to release all the available land it owns for housing. It has currently released 98% of all land previously owned by the Mayor.

The main aims of the Commission are:

• Identify priority areas for future growth
• Make sure the process is fast-tracked
• Give taxpayers a good return on the investment
• Provide better regeneration sites across the capital

Along with regional and national government representatives, the first meeting of the Commission was attended by other major landowners such as NHS England, Transport for London and Network Rail.

Move quickly to unlock sites

Boris Johnson says it is ‘simply madness’ not to unlock these sites as fast as possible, with the population of London rapidly growing.

The Commission will look to reduce the red tape currently keeping the land locked up.

Brandon Lewis believes there is a huge demand to release this land to give Londoners more homes.

John McLarty, Head of Planning at Strutt & Parker, comments: “Time and time again the government sets these initiatives but the real challenge is delivery. Further incentivisation through special delivery areas, relaxing planning control and fast tracking with more staff would also assist. It should also be debated whether private practices could do more to prepare, submit and present direct to special elected panels.”

London Councils Executive Member for Housing, Sir Steve Bullock says the unlocking of land is a vital cog in the provision of affordable homes for Londoners.

Some progress has already been made by the Mayor with land unlocked at the Royal Docks, the Beam Park site in Rainham, and the former Cane Hill hospital site in Croydon.