Developing areas to accommodate London's growth

Revitalising the old, creating the new

London will over the coming years need to accommodate big increases in housing and employment. Some of this increase can be absorbed on small sites dotted throughout the capital. But large-scale developments will also be needed.

The London Plan identifies a number of places for such developments, either as Opportunity Areas or Areas of Intensification. The latter are mostly in places where once dominant economic activity has largely or entirely disappeared – former large industrial sites and much of what was once the London Docks, for example. Opportunity Areas mostly sit in ‘corridors’ running out from central London through inner and outer regions and beyond the city boundaries.

A coordinated approach to creating communities

The single most important such ‘corridor’ is the Thames Gateway to the east of London – a national priority area for regeneration, and one with relatively high levels of deprivation. The Thames Gateway corridor links through London to the Western Wedge, where growth opportunities surround Heathrow. The potential for regeneration offered by this east-west axis is one of the main drivers behind plans for Crossrail.

Another key Opportunity Area is along the Lea Valley, leading to the London-Stansted-Cambridge-Peterborough growth corridor – another national priority area, and home to around 20% of London's population and housing growth potential.

In all these areas, the Mayor will work with boroughs, developers and other partners including transport bodies, to plan a coordinated approach to developing London's Opportunity Areas and Areas of Intensification, preparing London and Londoners for the years of growth that lie ahead.