London—Dentons, together with Urbanism Environment and Design Ltd (URBED), Gerald Eve and Housing Futures Ltd, has co-authored a new report which calls for the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and local authorities to be given greater powers to get more land into development for new homes in order to help to fix the capital’s housing crisis.

The report, titled "Capital Gains: A Better Land Assembly Model for London", was commissioned by the Mayor and the Greater London Authority (GLA) and investigates how land – often in a complex patchwork of different ownerships – is brought together for development in various places around the world. The research looks at the Netherlands, France, Germany, and the US to draw lessons for speeding up the assembly of land to deliver new homes in London.

It highlights how there should be greater use of Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) in London, particularly where developments are at risk of delay. It also proposes new mechanisms for curbing land value speculation in areas due for development – a step that could enable more social rented and other genuinely affordable homes to be built.

The report's key recommendations include:

• creating special Land Assembly Zones to promote land assembly through negotiation with the landowners or through compulsory purchase, where required. In time this could see land pooling being promoted and values frozen at market value on the date of designating the Zones;
• reforms to speed up the compulsory purchase process with greater powers devolved to the Mayor, as is common in German cities; and
• establishing a specialist team at City Hall to identify and bring forward land for housing, with the Government providing significant extra resources to support land assembly in London, as is the case in other countries around the world.

Stephen Ashworth, Planning partner at Dentons, said, "It's clear from the research that local authorities and the London Mayor need greater powers to bring forward land for development quickly. Land assembly – the process of forming a single developable site from a number of individually-owned pieces of land – can be complex and time consuming, and this complexity is hindering the construction of new homes in London. Fundamentally reforming compulsory purchase powers and introducing new land assembly mechanisms and resources will help ensure this can be done more efficiently, resulting in more homes being built, more quickly. But there is also much more that could be done using present powers more imaginatively."

Dr Nicholas Falk, Executive Director of the URBED Trust, said, “London needs to match its competitors, using powers that have been lost. Our team used the combined experience on land assembly of lawyers Dentons and surveyors Gerald Eve, together with case studies that I have provided to show how to make a difference. The report goes beyond a review of powers to providing practical examples of how a better model can work.”

The new report will be formally launched this evening by the Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development, James Murray, at an event hosted by Dentons and London First at Dentons' London offices. 

Click here to download the full report.

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