Diversity in London’s housebuilding industry

Large developers currently dominate London’s house building industry, but alone do not have the capacity to build the number of homes London needs.

The Housing Committee has written to the Mayor urging him to use public sector land to support house building in London by helping new and small developers enter the house building market.

The Committee found small and medium sized developers are less likely to have significant land banks and have an incentive to build out their sites more quickly than developers with large land banks.

The Committee has asked the Mayor to consider the following:

Parcelling public land into smaller sites prior to disposal, with some sites reserved for small builders

Openness about the framework GLA is considering to help small builders

Greater transparency to see who is buying land in London through the LDP - where and for how much.

The Housing Committee met with developers, researchers and the Greater London Authority to discuss diversity in London's housebuilding industry in March 2014. Agenda papers and meeting minutes are available online.