Last week our South East team announced it had expanded into larger office space in London, in response to growing demand for high quality, well located residential development land.
The announcement came at a similar time to the publication of the House Building Federation’s (HBF) Mind the Gap report. Their analysis reveals just how stark London’s housing crisis has become:
- Current output – around 30,000 homes a year – falls far short of London’s assessed need of 88,000 annually, exposing a systemic shortfall that existing brownfield supply alone cannot close.
- High-rise schemes that the capital has traditionally relied upon are stalling, which makes it essential to look at new land options.
- Planning permissions are also at record lows, with fewer than 1,000 residential projects ap-proved across the capital last year. The decline has been steepest in new flat registrations, highlighting the squeeze on high-rise delivery.
As a result, pressure is growing to identify new sources of land to meet housing needs. Brownfield land, which has always been the primary source of land for the capital’s housing since New Labour came to power in 1997, can no longer bridge the gap and the Mayor’s active review of Green Belt and Grey Belt land signals a major policy shift. The capital’s housing needs are increasingly shifting towards sustainable, well-designed family housing on the city’s edges, with the HBF calling for the completion of the review of Green belt – and its release for development – as quickly as possible.
Our fast-growing South East team is perfectly positioned for this fundamental change in the capital’s housing delivery. With support from our industry leading Land Studies, Technical, Design, Planning Delivery and Disposals teams, they have with the right knowledge, experience and contacts to unlock sustainable sites and deliver the family and mixed-tenure housing that London urgently needs.
Their track record is testament to their success. They are enjoying a record period of activity with a pipeline of 40 projects across London and the South East. And for the first time in Richborough’s 23-year history, they are also progressing projects within the Greater London Authority (GLA) boundary.
If you have land to unlock in London and the South East, please get in touch today for an informal chat: Alex.Sciarretta@richborough.co.uk
Read about our London office expansion here