The state of London’s housing crisis: how did we get here and what are we doing about it?

London’s housing crisis is spiralling out of control. Tens of thousands are homeless, housing delivery is faltering, and councils are on the brink of bankruptcy.

The capital desperately needs more affordable homes. But with dramatic increases in new supply years away, what radical action do we need to take now to decelerate this crisis, mitigate the harms to Londoners, and start turning the situation around?

Delegates and experts from across sectors will join moderated, thematic sessions.

How to fix London’s homelessness crisis, with a focus on prevention and supply – facilitated by London Housing Director’s Group and supported by London Councils

Overview of the crisis: Introduction and latest key stats on homelessness and temporary accommodation in London, including insights into the private rented sector. 

Programme Insights: Discovering how a new ‘Ending Homelessness Accelerator Programme’ for London is bringing key stakeholders together to create a more unified approach to prevent homelessness, including opportunities for early and targeted intervention.

Built for Zero – ending homelessness using data and partnerships, facilitated by Crisis

Built for Zero is a movement to end homelessness. It started a decade ago in the USA, expanding to Canada, Australia, France, Denmark and the UK. The Built for Zero approach uses data, partnerships and mindsets in a complete methodology to bring about systems changes for specific cohorts of people experiencing homelessness in specific places – leveraging the power of the community.

We will be talking about two projects – one where we used the approach to rapidly bring down numbers of households in temporary accommodation and a project in the London Borough of Brent, looking at improving the system for rough sleepers.

Regulating London’s short-term let market, facilitated by Central London Forward

New insight into the impacts of short-term lets on the availability of housing in central London, and how other places have tackled this issue.

Identifying policy solutions and ways to collaboratively advocate for the powers to better regulate the short-term let market in London, balancing our role as an international city that welcomes visitors with the needs of Londoners facing acute housing crisis.

Focus on London’s specific context and experience of a concentrated, professionalised, and profitable short-term let market.

Housing 2035: Exploring London’s Housing Future – facilitated by Centre for London’s Research Team

Understanding the context: Providing a data-led context to the priorities and preferences of London’s communities, institutions and decision-makers.

Looking forward: Exploring hypothetical scenarios for London’s future housing market to surface the impacts for London’s communities and institutions.

Building consensus: Surfacing the risks and opportunities in London’s possible housing futures through collaborative workshopping.

Delegates will have the opportunity to join different thematic sessions.

Keynote speaker to be announced soon.

London’s Housing Future: where are we headed?

The debate about London’s housing future is often siloed. Conversations about housebuilding happen in isolation from debates on renting or tackling homelessness. In reality, housing is a complex system where tricky trade-offs often go underexamined.

Given these realities, what does an attainable housing future for London look like, and what light does this cast on the current crisis?

Details to be announced.