After more than a year of "Towards a New London Plan" engagement, the Mayor has published the real thing. On 16th July, Sadiq Khan released the draft new London Plan - the document that will shape what gets built, where, and under what conditions across the capital through to 2050. It's now open for public consultation until 15th October 2026, ahead of an independent examination and adoption expected in early 2028.
For anyone sourcing, assessing, or bringing forward sites in London, this is one to read properly rather than skim. Here's what's changed, and what it might mean for your pipeline.
The headline structural change is length: the new draft is roughly half the size of the 2021 London Plan. City Hall has stripped out policy that simply duplicates the NPPF, keeping London-specific detail only where it considers a targeted approach still necessary - fire safety being one example cited. The stated aim is less administrative complexity and a more efficient planning process, which developers and agents have been asking for given how long viability negotiations and pre-app stages have been dragging on.
Whether "shorter" translates into "faster" in practice remains to be seen, but it's a meaningful shift in approach from a Mayor who has previously been criticised for adding layers of London-specific requirements on top of national policy.
This is the part that will get the most attention. The draft plan formally proposes limited and selective release of Green Belt land, building on the Mayor's Green Belt speech last year. It's not a free-for-all: any site considered would need to deliver substantial affordable housing, sit close to public transport, improve access to green space, achieve biodiversity net gain, be supported by appropriate infrastructure, and be landscape-led.
Importantly, the decision on which sites come forward sits with individual boroughs through their local plans, not with City Hall directly. For land buyers, this means the practical opportunity won't be visible in the London Plan itself - it'll surface borough by borough, as local plans are reviewed and Green Belt boundaries are tested against the new criteria. Worth flagging early to planning teams tracking borough plan-making timetables.
The draft plan moves away from a single blanket affordable housing target and towards varying thresholds by borough, reflecting differing viability across London. The Fast-Track threshold will return to 35% from 2028 in more than a third of boroughs, with other boroughs sitting at different bands depending on local viability evidence. The Mayor's strategic ambition remains 50%, and boroughs can move up bands as conditions improve.
For appraisal purposes, this is a meaningful change from a flat London-wide figure to something more borough-specific, and it's worth building into feasibility work now rather than waiting for adoption.
The plan explicitly carves out land for data centres, AI infrastructure, and life sciences, alongside logistics and freight - while also looking to release industrial land in highly accessible locations for housing where it's no longer the best use. This dual approach (protect what's strategically needed, release what isn't) is likely to reshape industrial land values in parts of London over the plan period, particularly in locations well served by transport but currently zoned for uses that no longer fit.
The plan also reinforces protection for the Central Activities Zone, Strategic Economic Clusters, and the West End's retail and cultural offer, alongside support for high streets adapting to changing consumer habits.
City Hall's evidence base points to a potential 558,000 new homes by 2037, though the document itself acknowledges this figure depends on national government support, particularly around transport infrastructure investment such as the West London Orbital and Bakerloo line extension. Brownfield land remains the stated priority, with Green Belt release positioned as a last resort where brownfield alone can't meet need.
The consultation runs until 15th October, and City Hall has an accessible online event scheduled for 22nd July for anyone wanting to engage directly. If you're tracking sites in areas likely to be affected by Green Belt reviews or shifting affordable housing thresholds, now's the moment to get ahead of it - both by responding to the consultation and by revisiting site assumptions against the new draft policy.
We'll be tracking how this develops through examination and adoption, and what it means for site identification and appraisal in practice. In the meantime, if you're reassessing opportunities against the new draft plan, LandInsight can help you map ownership, planning history, and constraints across the areas most likely to see change.