Introduction
In this blog post, we discuss the Government’s proposed package of emergency measures to support housing delivery in London
On 23 October 2025 the Government announced these measures which are set out in a policy paper entitled ‘Homes for London: A Package of Support for Housebuilding in the Capital’ and also discussed in a Government press release both of which can be accessed below:
Policy Paper:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68fa1ab730c331c88be6f00a/support-for-house-building-in-london.pdf
Press Release:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-measures-announced-to-ramp-up-housebuilding-in-london
We provide below a summary of the Government’s proposed measures
Proposed measures to support housing delivery in London
The Government is proposing the following emergency measures to support housing delivery in London:
(1) A temporary relief from the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) including 50 per cent of borough CIL relief available for residential schemes (excluding student and co-living accommodation) which commit to delivering at least 20 per cent affordable housing and that commence after the relief is in place and before 31 December 2028.
(2) The removal of elements of guidance that can constrain density including standards relating to dual aspect and units around the core, and amendments to cycle storage requirements.
(3) A time-limited planning route enabling developers to secure planning permission without a viability assessment on private land where they commit to 20 per cent affordable housing. This route will not apply to sites on or released from Grey or Green Belt or student accommodation or purpose built shared living development, or schemes where either of these (or together) are the main uses within the development. This route will be available until 31 March 2028 or the publication of the revised London Plan, whichever is earlier.
(4) New powers for the Mayor of London to review and call-in applications of schemes of over 50 homes where a borough is minded to refuse, and to call-in development proposed on the Green Belt and Metropolitan Open Land, with the intention of supporting additional delivery.
(5) Funding to establish a City Hall Developer Investment Fund with an initial allocation of £322m of grant investment to enable the Mayor to unlock and accelerate housing delivery.
The above are intended to be time-limited emergency measures and will each be subject to a formal consultation to be carried out either by the Government or the GLA for a period of 6 weeks from November 2025.
Our comments
With housebuilding in London and indeed the United Kingdom as a whole currently well behind the Government’s target of building 1.5 million homes, we welcome these emergency measures to support the delivery of more housing in London which in our view are well overdue. Measures proposed such as reducing the standard percentage of affordable housing required on housing development schemes (from 35% to potentially 20%) and temporary CIL relief should in our view provide new financial incentives to developers to bring forward the delivery of housing in the capital.
We would recommend to our developer clients with unimplemented existing housing development schemes in London with high levels of affordable housing provision to evaluate whether they might be able to obtain a ‘better deal’ in terms of affordable housing provision going forward (by either varying this existing provision or submitting a new scheme) and in this respect we expect to see a significant increase in the number of deeds of variations to section 106 agreements which come across our desk and please let us know if any of our lawyers can be of any assistance with this.
Note: all comments and views expressed in this blog are merely opinions and provided for information purposes only and do not constitute legal advice which can be relied upon. Should you require legal advice on a matter then please contact us
