Planning for a better London

There needs to be more restrictions on small 2 bed family homes being turned into 6 person plus bedsit HMOs. These are not providing benefit back into London. 

Also, London already has a crisis of children not growing up and living in the city and high rise apartments and HMOs does nothing to improve this. 

There needs to be more done to tackle existing empty homes and to discourage people from having second or third homes. These take up valuable housing opportunities. Why build a new home when there's an existing empty home being hoarded by selfish landowners?

There were going to be 700 new flats near me, but that scheme was cancelled because the council wanted more affordable homes and so the developer walked away. So now we have no homes of any kind and a bunch of polluted scrubland.  We have to stop making "perfect" be the enemy of "good enough" and start building.   London is crying out to be allowed to build, up and out, but the local councils all way that towers are "too high" and so nothing gets built and we just decay. 

It is ABSOLUTELY possible for London to hit it's housebuilding target, we just need politicians to be brave enough to say yes. 

Also:

There are lots of comments from people saying that new housing is for people "who aren't from here". 

That ignores the fact that once they or their ancestors were not from there too. We need to hurry up and build, we have a housing crisis and arguing about who might move in won't stop your rent going up again!

Generation Rent will vote for whoever will let us build a future, starting with homes. 

I am in in-between 2 high streets. One I used to visit regularly as a child with my family. This I now avoid as the culture has been ripped from it, this high street is now for those who are new to the area; these people are consumers. Now the local authority has people making complaints about drunkenness, people urinating, defecating and vomiting. I avoid this area after certain hours. The other high street has also changed BUT the community has been brought along with the changes so I feel more connected here in contrast with the other high street that I disconnect from. I am also aware that these surveys and platforms will not ever reach people some people who become more and more marginalised in areas they live. 

From my experience cost of businesses is prohibitive, licensing is also prohibitive and getting a street space it just makes everything so difficult for one off small sellers or new sellers ..so London needs to ease up and work with pubs and use streets to create pop up markets - "London mayor tables and stalls" could be hired for £10 per day - £5 for 24 hour licence Inc insurance and people can just pre book and pre pay - the stalls can be kept in certain locations or delivered using an electric vehicle that drops and collects - even 20 stalls could really help small business sellers to test the market

We enquired about the park outside city hall they wanted £8,000 : ))))) what a bloody joke not everyone's a millionaire business be real!

More busking sites they should be everywhere for performers we've killed art in UK .. Why is it SO hard to find places to sing, dance, read poetry etc .. come on bring the capital to life with some creativity platforms dotted around London in strategic locations not just underground and covent garden ..we can do better

Hidden London app .. there's so many places and things in London that loads of people don't know.. particularly tourists, like crossbones cemetery & baker street irregulars meet ups in regents park  .. Although crossbones is not a night time place it could have an annual open night to give late night people a chance to visit things like that that generate a buzz - people could put a candle on a grave .. The polish do it on Nov 7th and there's always Dia del Les Mortes .. we should have things like that once a year

"tiktok" studios - booths for online sellers to do promos 

Less franchise more independent businesses ..it's so boring all the same corporate stuff 

VEGAN! you need a "vegan in London" app that outlets selling vegan food can be found .. unbelievably hard to find vegan outlets! Ridiculous in 2025 .. Went to fashion museum and one decent deli nearby by luck had something for my sister to eat but everything else was meat or eggs/milk based food 

"Safety in numbers" - a meet up app for night workers to connect to others to travel/walk together (passport verified ID) and safe place list such as 24/7 fuel stations, hotels, taxi ranks if people feel unsafe so they can quickly find other people

"100 SOS" text service which connects to CCTV crews so people who feel unsafe can text the teams to request CCTV to watch them and call police if necessary using what three words or qr codes/what three words stickers on lampposts for exact location

Ride share - freewheelers and bla bla promotion of these services in nighttime business to reduce indy car use and help keep people safe

Home safe nightclub scheme - if anyone really drunk or on their own staff some sort of scheme 

London needs finance. A very easy source would be by making the whole of the M25 a toll road just like the Dartford Crossing.It doesnt have to be much (same as Dartford Crossing) but we have the tech lets use it.

 With this money London could do everything it wants: more police, cleaner streets better social care and an inspired use of the car in development. 

Viz mandatory underground carparking for all planning applications. People in London need their cars,well lets capitalise on it.

How to add housing in the most economic way in London: allow the development of the existing 2and 3 storey houses with an additional roof storey. The sub structure is in place service routes exist and with a mansard type solution to roofs taking a leaf out of Paris’s model  affords accommodation for growing families.

It is very concerning to me that there is no discussion at ALL within a London housing survey about rent control. I understand that there is pressure on the local government from a national level to build houses to fulfill political party agendas, but what is the point in building “88,000 houses per year” if they aren’t affordable for London residents?

In a market where all renters are massively overpaying and all new housing developments start at unaffordable prices that makes them inaccessible to 90% of Londoners, surely some sort of commitment to making sure that people can afford one of the “880,000 houses” should be prioritised? 

Furthermore, there also needs to be some sort of commitment to ensuring that existing housing, particularly that provided by local councils, is actually of a liveable standard? And in instances where it is not, affordable alternatives NEED to be provided. Local councils are far too passive when it comes to residents living in apartments affected by severe mould and damp issues. Why should we trust the government with “880,000 new houses” when they can’t take care of the existing houses they are responsible for?

The London Government see housing as a financial and political asset, rather than for the purpose that it exists, which is a place for people to live comfortably and affordable. It is an essential; not a commodity. 

To Whom It may concern 

Keep the community playing centres active. 

Open more social activities club Hub for young people. 

I was hugely depressed going through the latest survey at how manipulative it is. You are not properly asking for our views as there are not free text opportunities on each question and the questions are shockingly leading. For example there was no opportunity to say none of the above or don't load more obligations on developers!

Your desire to manufacture answers that heap yet more costs on developers is a disgrace... and I am not a developer or in the property industry. Developers should be incentivised to build and the planners should set the boundaries. 

There was no room to say that properly qualified and properly resourced planning departments are a major factor holding things back yet I hear this time and again from people I know in the property industry. 

There is obvious sense in allowing empty office space to be turned into residential or mixed use. There is an obvious need to ensure that new housing is accompanied by relevant local services. Planning should set the frameworks and developers should be set free to deliver.

The level of bureaucracy is a disgracefully excessive and causes massive, unnecessary costs.

The good functioning of the economy is essential but the degree of congestion imposed by TfL and the mayor backed up by councils with LTNs, unnecessary bike lanes, abusively low speed limits, narrowing and removal of crucial road space are all hugely damaging to the economy because they make people unproductive as their time is unnecessarily wasted in crawling traffic. There is also good evidence of retail trade being damaged by such measures.

When you read this, please recognise that this is a problem of YOUR making, as the volume of traffic on London's roads is very close to what it has been for three decades but average speeds have fallen year on year. The money you and councils extract in fines and charges ~ £2 bn would be better used in the economy than extracted by YOU an wasted on schemes to further increase fines and charges.

To Whom It my concern 

Keep the community playing centres active. 

Open more social activities club Hub for young people. 

We should also look at homes that have been empty to bring them back into use. London is lovely to live, but I think more investment should be made in other poorer areas so that people feel valued, and large companies may move more business there, which would encourage people to move further a field.

Rent ccontrols have never worked, lets not do that.

Focus on delivering for the economy. 

Drive efficiency on the transport network - SWR should not need guards, driverless tubes, selective use of 20mph rather than a blanket approach. 

Make all London roads 20mph to help safety and air quality. 
More housing in brown field sites. More car free areas and cycle lanes. 
Ensure all new builds have solar panels and heat pumps. Build living roofs and walls to keep the city cooler in summer. 
 

More lighting in streets after dark and more staff in stations 

London has the most expensive transport network in the world. There's no point building affordable housing on (vital) greenbelt land, because the people who need it would struggle to afford the travel cost - poorly paid jobs tend to not be remote. Rent controls and cheap travel would yes be hard to re-implement, but every other major european city seems to have managed it. Housing should not be seen as a commodity or investment vehicle, and we should make every effort to discourage it being used as such.

A 24 hour city in built-up areas is essential to protect the environment. We need an intensification of the economy in these areas. What we shouldn't do is expand economic activity into the green belt or metropolitan open land, whether through commercial/housing/mixed-use. 

The Economy is dependent on our natural world and biodiversity (see the Dasgupta Review), and it is essential we protect these so they can provide the necessary ecosystem services.

The only possible exception should be leisure activities or the promotion  life sciences that require green space.