New emergency planning powers giving the Mayor of London the ability to call in planning applications of 50 or more homes where a borough is minded to refuse them came into force this month, the latest step in a joint package agreed between City Hall and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities aimed at restarting stalled housebuilding in the capital.
Alongside the call-in mechanism, the package introduces a fast-track planning route for schemes that deliver at least 20 per cent affordable housing, and offers temporary relief from the Community Infrastructure Levy on qualifying sites. Officials said the changes were intended to address a build-out crisis driven by viability challenges, build-cost inflation and lender caution.
Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan said the measures would "cement London's council housing comeback" when paired with separate funding from central government for new social and affordable homes. Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development Tom Copley described 2026 as "the turnaround year" after a particularly slow 2025 for new starts.
Rough sleeping in London fell 11 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026, with 3,944 people recorded as sleeping rough between January and March, according to figures released by the Combined Homelessness and Information Network at the end of April. The mayor's office said the trajectory remained fragile.
Borough leaders have offered a mixed response. Some Labour-led councils said the call-in power would shorten timelines on schemes their members would have approved anyway; several Conservative-led boroughs in outer London said the framework risked overriding local democratic decisions on density and design.
The first call-in test cases are expected within weeks, with several large stalled regeneration sites in Newham and Greenwich understood to be on a watchlist held by the Greater London Authority's planning team.