Foreword

I am proud to publish this new and ambitious London Plan. Many Londoners won’t know about or have come across the London Plan, but it affects our lives on a daily basis. It is one of the most crucial documents for our city, and what it contains shapes how London evolves and develops over coming years. Since I was elected Mayor in May 2016, publishing a new and revised London Plan, one that reflects the policies and issues on which I was elected by the people of this great city, has been a major priority for my administration.

After a rigorous process of consultation and an Examination in Public, in which 300 different organisations or individuals participated, I am really pleased to have reached this milestone. In response to the consultation on the draft London Plan, the many statements submitted to the Examination in Public, and the examination hearings themselves, we made more than 1,500 changes. This goes to show that this London Plan has genuinely been informed and influenced by the generous and thoughtful engagement of everyone involved.

This new London Plan marks a break with previous London Plans, represents a stepchange in our approach and serves as a blueprint for the future development and sustainable, inclusive growth of our city.

Over many decades, London has evolved, resulting in an extraordinary web of distinctive residential streets, squares, markets, parks, offices, and industrial and creative spaces. The built environment we see today – the legacy of previous generations – has not just shaped the way our city looks but has had a profound impact on how and where we live, work, study and socialise with one another.

Throughout this evolution, London has seen waves of growth and our surroundings reflect these past chapters of rapid development and change. We now face another wave of growth, the likes of which we’ve not seen for a century. Our population is projected to increase by 70,000 every year, reaching 10.8 million in 2041. This means that just to meet demand, we need to build tens of thousands of new homes – along with space for new jobs – every single year.

Dealing with such a level of growth is undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges of our times, putting pressure on land, housing, infrastructure and the environment. It also comes as we are facing other unprecedented challenges: Brexit and the continued uncertainty this is causing; air pollution; climate change; and entrenched inequality. Yet despite these challenges, I am optimistic that we can embrace London’s population rise as a once in a lifetime opportunity to write the next big chapter in London’s history and to deliver a new vision for our city.

This London Plan sets out a new way of doing things, something I call Good Growth. Good Growth is about working to re-balance development in London towards more genuinely affordable homes for working Londoners to buy and rent. And it’s about delivering a more socially integrated and sustainable city, where people have more of a say, and growth brings the best out of existing places while providing new opportunities to communities.

Good Growth is not about supporting growth at any cost, which for too long has been the priority, leaving many Londoners feeling excluded and contributing to a lack of community cohesion and social integration.

Some of the very richest and very poorest people in the country live in London, with healthy life expectancy differing by up to 19 years between boroughs. The economic prosperity and wealth, often right on some people’s doorsteps, seems more remote and inaccessible to them than ever before. For too many Londoners, the thought of buying somewhere to call home is out of reach.

Instead, what we need is growth that allows us to build thousands of genuinely affordable homes at the same time as creating a more inclusive, greener and safer city that supports the health and wellbeing of all Londoners.

There are no quick fixes to the housing crisis London faces. I’ve always been honest with Londoners that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. But we are making progress, and this plan underscores my determination to continue to address this huge problem.

Central to the plan is how we can help boroughs better co-ordinate growth across London. It includes strong new measures and sets ambitious targets for every London borough for building more of the housing we need. This goes alongside my strategic target for half of new homes to be genuinely affordable.

Unlike previous versions of the London Plan, which have often read as sweeping statements of ambition rather than concrete plans for action, this document places a specific focus on tangible policies and planning issues and provides greater clarity over how the plan will be implemented and where in London major development and infrastructure should be delivered.

Crucially, the plan also details how City Hall’s housing, social, economic, cultural, environmental and transport policies tie together to achieve maximum impact. This integration across different policy areas is key to creating the conditions for sustainable growth.

Through this London Plan, we want to continue building a city that works for all Londoners – where everyone has the opportunity to reach their potential, lead fulfilling lives and build tight bonds with people from many different backgrounds within their communities.

My vision has always been for a city with an economy that supports more and better paid jobs – spread across the capital. A city where people can spend less time commuting because we have so many thriving parts of London, with good affordable housing, combined with exciting, cutting-edge career opportunities. And a city where access to great culture is built into the fabric of every part of London, with our rich heritage and cultural offer supporting our growing world-class creative industries.

The London Plan is part of realising that vision, and of revolutionising the way we get around our city – enabling a boom in active travel, with walking and cycling becoming the primary, default choice for millions of Londoners because we have made it far easier and safer. It’s also about making London a greener city, with high quality open spaces, parks and commons, and one where we lead the way in tackling climate change by moving towards a zero-carbon city by 2050.

And it’s about making London a city with clean air for our children to breathe, and a pioneering smart city with world-class digital connectivity supporting more digital devices to improve the lives of Londoners and enable businesses to thrive.

Over the course of my Mayoralty, we’ve been working hard to make this vision a reality. This includes introducing the world’s-first Ultra Low Emission Zone to help clean up our air; securing London’s status as the first National Park City; publishing the Good Work Standard to make London the best city in the world in which to work; setting up London’s first six Creative Enterprise Zones; and starting to build more new council homes last year than in any year since 1984. Publishing this London Plan, following its Examination in Public, is the next critical step on this journey.

This London Plan is fundamentally about taking a holistic approach and utilising all the levers we have in London to shape our city for the better, built around the needs, health and wellbeing of all Londoners. It combines a purpose and a vision. But we need everyone to do their bit, including boroughs, developers, land owners, existing residents, architects and, of course, the Government.

The level of growth we must plan for will require significant investment – both from businesses and the public sector – in transport, infrastructure and affordable housing. And in order to deliver the fundamental change we need in the long term, the Government should step up and give more powers and investment to London.

There is no question we face some huge challenges ahead. But this London Plan is an opportunity we must grasp to shape the future of our city for generations to come – not only in regard to the way it looks and feels, but in its character and how Londoners live prosperous and fulfilling lives.