The London Plan is a policy document published by every new Mayor of London. It’s a spatial development strategy—a vision for how London will develop over a long period, typically, about 20 years. Londoners are invited to have a say in the plan and to take part in the consultation of its draft writing, and then, a select number of respondents are further invited to participate in a public examination of the proposed policies and provide additional written statements. The undertaking spans years and involves hundreds of participants and thousands of documents.
London Plan Public Library
The 2021 London Plan
The London Plan Public Library is an online archive which documents all the documents prepared for the publication of the 2021 London Plan authored by Mayor Sadiq Khan and the Greater London Authority, collecting texts produced from 2017 to 2020 during the Consultation and the Examination in Public of the 2017 draft new London Plan.
2017 London Plan Draft for Consultation
2017 London Plan Draft for Consultation
About the London Plan
Statistics of the 2021 London Plan
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4
years from draft to final publication
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12
weeks draft consultation
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51
examination sessions
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94
examination matters
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300
examination participants
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3,600
documents published and reviewed
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4,000
written submissions
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7,400
individuals and organisations
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20,000
representations
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1,400,000
words written
Four sister publications, Growing London, Public London, Ageing London, and Shaping London, were prepared by the Mayor’s Design Advisory Group (MDAG) during Mayor Boris Johnson’s administration, working in conjunction with GLA staff and New London Architecture. These agendas would inform Mayor Sadiq Khan’s Good Growth vision for London.
Sadiq Khan was elected the new Mayor, becoming the third Mayor of London since the Greater London Authority’s inception, following the two terms each by Boris Johnson and Ken Livingstone. Part of his statutory duty as a new mayor is to publish a new London Plan and set out the planning policy framework for London’s strategic spatial development.
October 2016 — December 2016
In October 2016, the new Mayor published A City for All Londoners, which outlined the capital’s top challenges and opportunities across priority policy areas, as well as the changes that the Mayor wanted to see. This was followed by a public consultation on the report, inviting stakeholders, community and voluntary organisations, and Londoners to take part in workshops and discussions to shape City Hall policy. The GLA asked Londoners to share their experiences and discuss their needs in the city on the online forum - Talk London, and held a number of stakeholder workshops on a range of strategic policy areas, as well as conducted community research with separate focus groups with people from different backgrounds.
November 2017
The draft new London Plan was published and shared publicly with Londoners on 29 November 2017.
December 2017 — March 2018
A three month consultation to take into account consultation responses in drafting suggested changes to the Plan.
On 13 August 2018 the Mayor published a version of the draft Plan that includes his minor suggested changes. These suggested changes have been prepared following a review of consultation responses, and consist of clarifications, corrections and factual updates to the draft Plan that will help inform the EiP. Therefore comments on them are not being invited.
January 2019 — May 2019
The draft London Plan was taken through and considered by a formal Examination in Public, or EiP, led by independent inspectors appointed by the Secretary of State.
January 2019 — May 2019
Further Suggested Changes proposed by the Mayor following consideration of statements in response to the Panel’s matters and/or discussions at the examination sessions. These are in addition to any proposed changes that formed part of the Mayor’s written statements.
The ‘consolidated’ version of the London Plan shows all of the Mayor’s suggested changes following the Examination in Public (EiP) of the draft Plan. There are two versions, one with the changes highlighted and one without.
October 2019
The Mayor received The Panel Report and Recommendations report from the Panel of Inspectors.
December 2019
The Mayor made further modifications to the Plan in response to the report, and submitted the Intend to Publish London Plan to the Secretary of State, including his responses to the Panel’s recommendations. Following the Examination in Public and receipt of the Inspectors report, the Mayor issued to the Secretary of State his intention to publish the London Plan along with a clean and tracked version of the Intend to Publish London Plan, a statement of reasons for any of the Inspectors’ recommendations that the Mayor does not wish to accept and a note that sets out a range of interventions that will help achieve the housing delivery set out in the Plan.
February 2020 — January 2021
- Letter with the Anticipated response received from the Secretary of State — 14 February 2020
- Response from Secretary of State and Directions received — 13 March 2020
- Response from the Mayor to the Secretary of State — 24 April 2020
- Mayor advises the Secretary of State he intends to approve a new London Plan — 9 December 2020
- Secretary of State responds to the Mayor confirming the 11 directions and issues 2 new directions — 10 December 2020
- Publication London Plan sent to Secretary of State — 21 December 2020
- Response received from the Secretary of State — 24 December 2020
- Formal response from Secretary of State received — 29 January 2021.
March 2021
The London Plan 2021 was formally published by the Mayor on 2 March 2021, four years since the draft plan’s publication.
Sadiq Khan was re-elected Mayor of London for a second term, one year after the May 2020 election was postponed due to the Covid-19 global pandemic.