London will need 844,000 new homes to cope with demand in next 25 years, figures show

The number of homes in London will need to rise by a quarter within 25 years to cope with its rising population, official figures showed today.

In a dramatic indication of the scale of the challenge, the Office for National Statistics said an extra 844,000 new households will be formed here by 2041 if current trends continue.

That amounts to a 24 per cent increase on the existing total and would give London — which now has about 3.4 million households — a new total of 4.3 million households.

Many of the boroughs with the greatest predicted growth are in east London. They include Tower Hamlets, which is predicted to have a 47 per cent more households by 2041, Barking and Dagenham, which is expected to see a 37 per cent increase, and Hackney with a 35 per cent rise.

The main reasons are migration and the increasing gap between the number of births and deaths, which together are pushing up the population. London will account for 21 per cent of the four million new households expected to be created in England by 2041.

Unveiling the figures, Jo Harkrader, of the Office for National Statistics’ Centre for Ageing and Demography, said: “The number of households in London is projected to increase by 24 per cent (844,000) between 2016 and 2041 — higher than the 17 per cent (four million) projected increase for England overall.

“Nationally, households headed by someone aged 65 years and over in England account for 88 per cent of projected total household growth, whereas for London these households account for 61 per cent of projected total growth, suggesting that the ageing population is having less impact in London than for England as a whole.”

Today’s findings will place pressure on Mayor Sadiq Khan to speed up the delivery of new homes.

Figures produced by housing analysts have shown that only 53,848 new homes began during the end of the second quarter of 2016 and the same period this year.