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Affordable housing in London’s big developments (50+ homes) has swung sharply from year to year. The affordable share fell to 21% in 2014, reached 40% in 2022, then slipped back below 30%. So far, 2026 is lower still, although the data stops in August. The striking bands at 0% and 100% reflect how planning applications work: some contain no affordable homes, others are wholly affordable, and individual phases of larger schemes can sit at either extreme.

“Affordable housing” is an umbrella term. It can mean social or affordable rent, London Living Rent, shared ownership and other homes offered below market prices. Different applications contain different mixes of these tenures, shaped by local policy, negotiations and the rules in force when the scheme was submitted.

Data and methodology: I used Planning London Datahub applications from January 2011 to August 2026 and checked figures against planning documents, committee reports and Section 106 agreements where needed. I excluded 183 applications with fewer than 50 conventional homes. Of the 1,641 shown, 1,596 passed these checks; 45 retain the Datahub figures because I could not independently confirm them and are marked with an asterisk. The yellow line shows the annual affordable share: the percentage of homes in these applications that were affordable each year.

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