Winning a contract from the Greater London Authority enabled URBED to draw lessons from how cities in other countries assemble the land needed to build housing. Other related work on land value capture has been commissioned by the UK 2070 Commission under Lord (Bob) Kerslake, and by other bodies.
This report highlights the historical challenges and lessons from London’s past, such as post-war public-led development and earlier strategies like New Towns. Drawing on international examples from the Netherlands, France, Germany, and the US, it explores successful models of strategic planning, land pooling, and value capture that could be adapted for London. The report advocates for introducing innovative measures such as Land Assembly Zones (LAZ), enabling early confirmation of compulsory purchase orders, and legislative reforms to streamline land assembly. It emphasises the need for a dedicated expert team and increased government support to overcome fragmentation, ownership complexities, and site-specific issues. The proposed models aim to accelerate housing provision, improve affordability, and better share land value uplift, ultimately creating more efficient, strategic approaches to land assembly that can meet London’s housing needs sustainably and rapidly.
