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Draft London Plan 2026: A new direction for growth in London, but will it be enough?

The Mayor of London launched the new Draft London Plan on 16 July 2026 – the long awaited updated strategic policy document that has been the target of growing voices for reform to address the lacklustre development and growth the Capital has faced in recent years. Director, Planning London, Freya Turtle, provides an initial overview of the key themes.

The publication of the Draft London Plan 2026 does mark a significant shift in London's planning framework since the adoption of the 2021 London Plan. At its core, this is a plan that is trying to be more overtly focused on housing delivery, economic growth, infrastructure investment and implementation than its predecessor.

The intent is clear: to move London towards a more delivery-focused planning policy framework that accepts difficult trade-offs in pursuit of addressing the housing crisis and supporting economic growth. The question everyone will be asking while reviewing this critical document, is whether this intent can follow through into practice and does it go far enough in really addressing the problems?

We will continue to review the draft document and share further detailed and focused commentary in a series of articles on key topics in the coming days and weeks, but in the meantime, some of the key points are below.

A strategic shift on Green Belt policy

One of the headline, but already expected, policy shifts is the Mayor's acceptance that brownfield land alone will not deliver the homes London needs. While the draft Plan retains a strong brownfield-first approach and continues to prioritise Opportunity Areas, town centres and existing urban land, it now explicitly proposes the managed release of selected Green Belt locations for housing and industrial development – going as far as to identify these locations on its 10 year and 20 year Key Diagrams.

A new framework for optimising density  

The density matrix of London Plans gone by is back, but now in the form of a ‘London-wide Optimisation Framework’. Connectivity remains a driving factor for unlocking densities, with minimum density expectations linked to the new Sustainable Access Measure (SAM) (in lieu of the long established Public Transport Accessibility Levels (PTAL) measure) and character-based location settings.

The draft Plan places a strong emphasis on mid-rise development. Rather than relying solely on high-rise clusters and major regeneration areas, the Mayor is seeking to establish four to nine-storey development as a normal part of London's future built context. This is certainly a targeted policy change for suburban London, particularly where local authorities and communities have often resisted intensification. 

Resetting housing delivery expectations

A bigger surprise is the fact that the draft Plan steps back from the previous ‘Towards a new London Plan’ consultation accepting that it cannot meet the Government's assessed housing need within the initial ten-year period. Instead, it adopts a deliverability-led housing target of 558,000 homes, only 6.8% more than the current London Plan’s target and significantly below the Government's expectation of approximately 850,000 homes over a decade. Although ambitions to meet the Government’s target over the longer term is referenced, it is emphasised that achieving this level of growth will require both more Green Belt release and substantial central Government investment in transport (e.g. Crossrail 2) and other infrastructure. Whether the infrastructure, funding and political buy-in required to unlock it can realistically be delivered in the 10 and 20 year timescales will be a critical area of debate.

Outer Boroughs face the biggest growth pressure

The 558,000 figure is massaged in surprising ways across the Boroughs, with some seeing significant reductions in housing targets since the 2021 London Plan and others facing significant uplifts. The Boroughs facing the biggest step changes (50-100% + increases) are primarily those in the outer ring, including LB Hillingdon, LB Enfield, LB Havering, LB Waltham Forest (with LB Bromley as an outlier with a -3%). This is a reflection of the Draft London Plan’s drive to unlock Green Belt sites and the densification of the suburbs.

Affordable housing policy becomes more location-specific

The Mayor's strategic ambition for 50% affordable housing and the ‘Fast Track’ mechanism remain. However, the draft Plan introduces a more differentiated threshold approach, with affordable housing requirements linked to location by Borough and land type. Fast-track thresholds range from 20% to 35% across the Boroughs, with central Borough’s generally facing the higher threshold, and then increasing further to 40% for public land (a reduction from the currently adopted 50%) and 50% on Green Belt. 

Economic growth and innovation move centre stage

The draft Plan itself as a key delivery mechanism for the London Growth Plan (published in 2025), with explicit support for emerging sectors such as life sciences, data centres, AI infrastructure and innovation districts. New strategic economic clusters are identified across the capital, while continued support is provided for town centre renewal, the night-time economy and London's globally significant commercial locations. The focus on ensuring an appropriate capacity of industrial and logistics remains, but in a much more streamlined and simplified policy context and with benchmarks set for storage and distribution demand across Industrial Property Market Areas.   

Have the changes achieved a simpler London Plan?

Beyond the individual policies themselves, there is a deliberate attempt to create a shorter, more streamlined document that aligns more closely with national planning policy and regulations. The draft Plan is significantly shorter than the 2021 version in both policy numbers and pages, and probably more akin in length to the 2011 London Plan – although it certainly is by no means lightweight. While some policies have been removed or amalgamated, there are also new and lengthier policies (e.g. on Data Centres and Affordable Workspace). It will be an ongoing challenge to see if further streamlining can be achieved before a final document is adopted in 2027/28.  

Although we are still waiting on a lot of the crucial evidence base to be published, there is certainly much detail to get to grips with and significant debate and commentary to soon ensue. For the development and planning sector, this is more than a simple update to existing policy - it is a key milestone in the ongoing conversation about how London tackles its challenges and grows over the next ten to twenty years. To be part of the conversation, the deadline for consultation comments is the 15 October 2026.  

If you would like to discuss the Draft London Plan, the proposed changes and their potential impact on development, investment or planning strategy, please contact Freya Turtle or Alex Christopher. 

17 July 2026