The group discuss that issue surrounding the fact that there are 190,000 development plots in London with extant permission that are simply mothballed. Adrian reports that there are about 190,000 building plots with planning consent in London which are not being built on – one key issue is the lack of infrastructure – now infrastructure follows development, which it cannot pay for out of current revenue – this has been the problem since the 1970s – we need new funding infrastructure mechanisms – as in the US where local authorities have more powers, e.g. to issue Bonds – this would enable new developments to be brought forward faster and with better provision of ‘hard’ and social infrastructure – good long-term finance is needed for this – perhaps by increasing the resources of the Public Works Loans Board – a failure of infrastructure financing.

See the Z2K Response to the 2009 UK Budget

Z2K Housing Review April 2009 Issue One: Contents