There has been much press coverage recently about London’s population reaching a new all time high, surpassing the previous record of 8,615,000 just before the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. By the end of this year, London’s population will have reached 8,641,000.

The latest available figures (for 2012/13) show 26,600 new homes had been built across the capital. Clearly there are challenges for policy makers in ensuring sufficient housing will be available for this significant population increase.

GLA member Steve O’Connell (Croydon & Sutton) has highlighted the potential to build new homes on small disused spaces.  In addition, there are still areas of land or disused buildings across London that could be turned into homes.  The Mayor of London is looking at the GLA’s own landholdings across London to see if these can be released for housing.  Of course, any development would have to consider how to avoid over-development, problems of increased traffic, lack of parking and the impact on local schools and medical services.

If there are any such unused spaces or buildings in your area that you think are suitable to be considered for housing, please let me know so I can find out who owns the land and if we can help to tackle the need for more housing.

Syed Kamall

MEP for London

 


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