Tackling London's housing crisis
The London Housing Strategy sets out the Mayor's plans to tackle the capital's housing crisis and his vision to provide all Londoners with a good quality home they can afford.
The strategy follows on from consultation on a draft version last year and has been considered by the London Assembly and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. The strategy was formally adopted in August 2018.
The housing crisis is the greatest challenge facing London today, and tackling it is one of the Mayor's biggest priorities.
In addition to the full and easy read versions, you can also read the executive summary of the London Housing Strategy.
Why is there a housing crisis?
In recent decades, London has excelled at creating jobs and opportunities. But at the same time, we have failed to build the homes we need.
Now a generation of Londoners cannot afford their rent and many are forced to live in overcrowded or unsuitable conditions. For many in this generation, home ownership is a distant dream.
What does this strategy do?
The aim of this strategy is to address the housing shortage through an intensive use of London’s available land, focusing on more genuinely affordable housing and providing help now for people feeling the effects of the housing crisis – from private renters to rough sleepers.
This strategy has five key areas:
- building more homes for Londoners
- delivering genuinely affordable homes
- high-quality homes and inclusive neighbourhoods
- a fairer deal for private renters and leaseholders
- tackling homelessness and helping rough sleepers
The Mayor has published a high level implementation plan, which includes key policies, proposals and actions; Mayoral targets or milestones where these have been agreed; and headline indicators of success.
You can also read the London Housing Strategy Impact Assessment, which reviews the impacts of the draft strategy.
Previous consultation
The Mayor consulted on his draft London Housing Strategy from 6 September until 7 December 2017. Thanks to everyone who gave their views. All the comments that were submitted have been considered and have fed into the revised version of the strategy.
The Consultation Response Report provides an overview of the responses to the consultation.
As part of the consultation, two workshops were held on 4 and 13 October 2017 at City Hall for organisations preparing a response to the draft London Housing Strategy. The GLA and Homeless Link also hosted an event on 17 November 2017 for organisations involved in tackling rough sleeping and homelessness to discuss the draft strategy.
Evidence base
Housing in London is the evidence base for the Mayor’s London Housing Strategy. The report is available from the Housing Analysis Datastore pages, which bring together a range of housing data and analysis resources relevant to the Strategy.
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