The town hall admits that the housing sector is “slow” and that it is well behind the 68,000 homes planned

The town hall’s land and property company may struggle to realize its own housing ambitions due to “challenging” circumstances, officials have admitted.

GLA Land and Property Limited (GLAP) was established in 2012 by former Mayor Boris Johnson as the wholly owned land and property company of the Greater London Authority (GLA), and provided a £300 million loan to the GLA the following year.

It manages around 645 hectares of land across London – the equivalent of 819 full-sized football pitches – including sites such as the Royal Docks and Greenwich Peninsula.

Despite a target of delivering 68,000 homes by 2041, GLAP reported that only 29,156 homes had been delivered or were on site between 2016 and 2025, representing around 43% of forecasts. Of these, only 15,135 properties have been completed, equivalent to 22 percent of the target.

Last year, there were only 382 starts and 1,675 completions on GLA land.

Earlier today (Thursday June 9), officials admitted they were “not satisfied” with current progress, but suggested results would “oscillate” in coming years. depending on the state of the market.

David Bellamy, the mayor’s chief of staff, told the London Assembly’s budget and performance committee: “GLAP is not immune to the wider pressures facing the market – it is probably worse for us because of the infrastructure needs on our brownfield sites.

“It’s the nature of real estate developments that causes the numbers to fluctuate.”

He added: “What has changed, frankly, is that the property market has become much more difficult. Looking at the London property market ten years ago, it probably seemed difficult at the time, but, you know, it’s like playing a video game at an easy level compared to where we are now, where it’s so incredibly difficult.

Tim Steer, Executive Director, Housing and Land at the GLA, added: “We would like to do more with GLAP to contribute to London’s housing needs.

“Conditions are incredibly difficult in the wider property market. Our job is to maximize what is available.

“Like all property development in London, it’s difficult and that’s what’s affecting the number of starts.”

After the meeting, Chairman of the Budget and Performance Committee, Neil Garratt, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “We have just gone through a golden period for property development in London over the last 10 years. There were cranes all over the city, but during this time, [GLAP] development was quite slow.

“At the current rate, they won’t get them built in this century and it looks like some of the first ones will be torn down because they’re abandoned and too old by the time the final lot is built.

“We just need to move faster, and I haven’t heard anything today that explains how we’re going to do that.

“All the problems we’ve heard about are real. The frustrating thing is they haven’t lifted a finger while every other property developer in London has gone gangbusters.

“And so now we’re really stuck in the slow lane, and we now have all the problems that everyone else has.”

Debt problems

As well as the delivery, concerns have also been raised over the slow repayment of the GLA’s £300 million loan. GLAP did not make its first repayment until 2024 and had repeatedly missed loan payment deadlines over the previous six years, according to internal city hall documents.

This is mainly due to GLAP’s cash flow, consisting mainly of land sale proceeds, which depends on agreements with development partners.

“The timing of these operations is often dependent on the timing of procurement, statutory authority consents, construction programs and market forces and is therefore highly variable and not entirely within the control of GLAP or its partners,” Mr. Sadiq Khan said last year.

“In 2018, an operational decision was made to reprofile an element of the loan to cash flow management. Over the years, ongoing work has been done to evaluate and adjust cash flow forecasts, but these are complex, long-term projects and adjustments need to be made from time to time.”

However, officials told the London Assembly yesterday that current forecasts suggest GLAP will achieve “surpluses and be able to meet its loan repayment obligations” for the next five years.

Stay up to date with London’s hottest events, latest restaurant openings and best deals with our Going Out Out newsletter. Register HERE!