Special Report: Havering Under Siege- How the Mayor of London’s Housing Targets Are Changing Our Streets.

The Mayor’s London Plan Driving Thousands of Flats Into Havering — Residents Say Enough Is Enough.

Havering residents angry at blocks of flats springing up on every spare patch of land should know exactly where the pressure comes from. Housing targets for London boroughs are set by the Mayor of London through the London Plan, the capital’s strategic spatial plan produced by the Greater London Authority. The London Plan establishes ten-year minimum targets for each borough and is the starting point for what local councils must plan to deliver.

Havering is being asked to deliver far more homes than many residents realise. Under the London Plan the borough’s ten-year requirement for 2019/20–2028/29 works out at an annualised figure of about 1,285 homes a year. Locally, Havering’s adopted Local Plan sets a higher short-term target of 1,801 new homes per year for the 2021/22–2025/26 phase. In blunt terms, those are the numbers planners use when deciding where new housing should go.

The gap between expectation and delivery is stark. Havering’s own Authority Monitoring Report for 2023/24 records just 577 net additional dwellings in the year to 31 March 2024, well below the council’s 1,801 annual target and below the London Plan figure. The shortfall is not new. The AMR shows the borough has accumulated a multi-year deficit in meeting Local Plan targets, creating mounting pressure to find sites where homes can be delivered quickly.

That pressure does not only come from planning targets. Private developers can sell completed blocks to any purchaser they choose, and councils under intense homelessness pressure are known to buy homes outside their borders to place families. There are confirmed examples where new developments in Romford have been bought by other boroughs. Newham Council purchased a recently completed block on North Street comprising 75 flats, a move that has sparked outrage locally because residents fear those homes will be used to house families from elsewhere rather than people on Havering waiting lists. Councillors say there are at least two new developments sold to non-Havering authorities that between them could house more than 100 families.

This phenomenon is not unique to Havering. Investigations and FOI requests over recent years show multiple London boroughs have bought properties out of borough as a pragmatic response to soaring housing need and rising prices inside their own boundaries. National housing reporting and industry coverage have documented councils purchasing homes outside their borders as far back as 2016 and more recently as pressures have grown. The result for places like Havering is an added demand on local services and the political perception that the borough is being used to absorb other boroughs’ housing problems.

So who is to blame? The simple answer is the squeeze comes from three directions. First, mayoral targets in the London Plan set the numerical demand. Second, local councils must find land and approve developments to meet those figures. Third, private market forces and other councils purchasing completed units add a further pull on available homes. The outcome is more flats, on smaller sites, often in the places that alarm residents most. Havering’s shortfall means planners are obliged to identify supply, which often translates into development on small brownfield sites and, sometimes, pressure on Green Belt edges.

What does Havering need instead? Residents repeatedly call for family homes, better-quality design, protection for green spaces and proper community consultation. Meeting a quota should not mean cramming the borough with poor-quality “lego-block” flats. The debate must move beyond raw numbers to ask what types of homes are needed for local people and how to protect the borough’s character while meeting legitimate housing needs.

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