George Osborne outlined plans to help meet a target of 400,000 new homes in London by 2025. Here are some of the key measures:

■ Mayor power: Devolving further powers over planning and skills to the Mayor of London. This will allow the Mayor to accelerate the provision of new homes by reducing planning delays.

■ Croxley rail link: The government will provide a further £34 million to support the delivery of the Croxley rail link project, subject to a £16 million contribution from Transport for London and final approval of the scheme.

■ Public land: £1 million to fund the London Land Commission which will create a database of public sector and brownfield land that could be used for residential developments.

■ Brent Cross: £97 million of funding and ring fencing of the local 50% share of business rate growth to support Barnet and GLA’s regeneration plans for Brent Cross. This will unlock 7,500 homes and create 4.9 million sq ft of new commercial development space for up to 27,000 jobs.

■ Croydon: £7 million to support Croydon Growth Zone which could unlock 4,000 homes and 10,000 jobs.

On a national level:

■ Commercially-driven: The government is to adopt a more commercially-driven approach to land and property asset management across the central government estate. Departments are to pay market-level rents for freehold assets they own.

■ Compulsory purchase consultation: The government has launched a consultation into the compulsory purchase regime to make it clearer, faster and fairer to support brownfield development.

Taken from
Spotlight: London Development - Spring 2015