London authorities are beginning to work on a new database of publicly owned land as the first step in an initiative to make more of it available for home building.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson and housing minister Brandon Lewis announced the move, which involves the Greater London Authority (GLA), the capital’s 32 boroughs and the government, and is thought to be the first time such a comprehensive set of data has been collected for the city.
Real estate research firm Savills has been appointed to lead the first stage in compiling a register of brownfield land in London, to be completed by the end of this year. Once collected, the GLA will use the data to map the spread of sites across the city.
The move reflects the government’s new emphasis on speeding up the development of brownfield sites to ease the national housing shortage.
In 2013 Johnson launched a database detailing GLA holdings, as part of a push to make more public land available for redevelopment. It confirmed that the mayor is one of the largest public sector land owners in London.
Image: Andreas Praefcke (own work), public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
