Cllr Festus Akinbusoye is a Westminster Councillor and is standing to be the Conservative candidate for Mayor of London
Walk through Maida Vale and you will find something London desperately needs more of: family homes, tree-lined streets and communal gardens. I live nearby in Abbey Road and serve as a Westminster City Councillor.
London has already shown us how to build high-density neighbourhoods that endure and Maida Vale is proof of this. My ambition is to make six-storey, family-friendly mansion blocks a normal form of development on suitable brownfield land.
So why have we made building more homes like this so difficult?
London’s housing crisis is largely man-made, shaped by decisions in City Hall and Whitehall over decades. This has been made much worse under Sadiq Khan as Mayor.
I know this personally. After moving between five temporary homes with my family as a teenager, I started my business from our council flat in Canning Town, supported by a £2,000 Prince’s Trust loan. Yet despite working hard and creating jobs, I was priced out of London in my early twenties.
Today, London’s crushed middle faces a much worse prospect.
According to Molior, private housing starts have fallen from around 33,400 in 2015 to just 8,400 in the latest twelve-month period. Recently, a medium-sized East London developer told me they too had stopped building homes for sale.
The harsh reality is this: every unbuilt home means lost opportunities for families, businesses, and London. As Mayor, I will pursue three fundamental reforms to fix this.
End duplication of planning regulations
Britain has one of the most discretionary planning systems. Unlike other developed countries where clear development rules are established in advance, our system leaves considerable uncertainty until individual applications are decided. The International Monetary Fund identifies this as an obstacle to investment.
London has turned that obstacle into an assault course.
England’s National Planning Policy Framework runs to around 130 pages. The Mayor’s London Plan adds more than 500 pages, and that’s before developers confront separate local plans across 32 boroughs and the City of London.
The Home Builders Federation’s 2026 report, ‘The Viability Crunch’, estimates that construction inflation, regulation, taxes and levies have added £76,000 to the cost of delivering a new home since 2020, including around £23,000 in additional regulatory costs nationally.
Londoners ultimately pay.
My London ‘Yes’ Plan will remove unnecessary duplication. Where national standards adequately address an issue, City Hall should not impose additional requirements without compelling justification.
I will introduce a presumption in favour of well-designed mid-rise housing on suitable brownfield sites. Through Opportunity Areas, design codes and Local Development Orders. Developments meeting clear rules will have a faster route to consent.
I will ensure consultations include younger residents, renters and families, not just those who can afford to object.
Affordable housing requirements must reflect economic reality. My plan proposes a viable 20 per cent general threshold, supported by tenure flexibility and grant funding until higher requirements become viable.
Build another generation of Maida Vales
London need not choose between towers and suburban sprawl. Five to six-storey mansion blocks can provide family apartments, courtyards, greenery and traditional streets at density.
But first we must unlock suitable land.
Old Oak Common and Park Royal demonstrate the opportunity. With HS2, the Elizabeth line and Underground and Overground connections, the area is becoming a major transport hub, yet surrounding land remains protected for industrial use.
I will review those designations to identify suitable brownfield sites for Maida Vale-style homes while safeguarding industrial jobs. Where industry must remain, modern multistorey premises deserve consideration.
I will also unlock underused public land, surface car parks, suitable airspace and opportunities for upward extensions.
Build upwards before building outwards.
Make housing delivery, not planning permissions, the measure of success
Planning reform achieves little if consented developments remain financially unviable.
From day one, I will establish a Housing Delivery Unit within City Hall to unblock stalled schemes with boroughs, developers, investors and utilities.
We will publish where electricity, water and other connections obstruct delivery and pursue solutions with regulators.
I will simplify housing grant conditions, support development corporations where appropriate and seek fiscal powers to help growth finance infrastructure.
A London Skills Academy will train construction workers, creating jobs alongside new family homes.
City Hall will be judged on homes started and completed, not processes, announcements, or ideological targets.
London once built neighbourhoods like Maida Vale because it understood that a growing city needed homes. We can do so again.
My ambition is a London where people can afford to build a life and stay in.
London works because Londoners work. London deserves a Mayor and City Hall that works harder for them.