Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced today that City Hall will ‘actively explore’ releasing parts of the city’s green belt to build homes and address the housing crisis.
Since assuming his position in 2016, Khan has consistently said that he is opposed to building on the green belt.
London’s green belt is a legally protected area of countryside and ‘green’ space surrounding the capital, covering approximately 515,000 hectares.
Khan previously said that he wanted to safeguard these areas with a “brownfield-first” approach – developing on sites that have been developed previously but are not in use currently. However, his stance has changed amid London’s escalating housing crisis.
The government wants to see 88,000 new homes built in the capital every year over the next decade, equating to almost one million new homes in total.
Khan said that his position on the green belt has changed because “bold solutions are required to fix London’s housing crisis”, adding that building on brownfield...