Concerns from property bosses over the local elections may have been mollified after Labour failed in its attempt to take key councils, but uncertainty still remains.
Meanwhile, London’s mayor Sadiq Khan is at the halfway point in his term and is unlikely to meet his soon to be target of building 65,000 homes per year in the capital.
The differing ways to hit this target will be central to discussions to debates between developers and newly elected local councillors will be key.
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Dean Clifford, co-founder of central London residential developer Great Marlborough Estates, said he definitely sees a need for a closer working relationship between councillors and the GLA.
But Ian Fletcher, director of policy at the British Property Federation, says he doesn’t agree with Khan’s policies on regeneration, stating that it “almost makes it impossible to do estate regeneration”.
“Clearly there is a move against those large regeneration projects and we need to get out there and restate the benefits.”
Housing has also been an issue outside of London. In the leafy Surrey district of Tandridge, the Conservatives just held on as residents reacted to housing plans for the area, which include a new garden city, by giving seats to residence associations and independents.
However, it is an area where Martin Bellinger, executive chairman of housing developer and contractor Guildmore, still believes developers can reap rewards from.
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“There is still a concentration on housing, it remains front and centre both at a government level, and national level and at a local government level and as an industry we should stand to gain from that, not necessarily financially, but operationally, and in a chance to get our point across at the policy level,” he said.
In genera,l developers such as Great Marlborough Estates are welcoming the results as the limited changes mean stability has been provided, and many hope that now councils have mandates they can push forward.
“The promised painting London red didn’t happen, maybe that will give us a bit more stability in the GLA area,” Bellinger adds.
“There’s been a bit of a reluctance that I’ve detected on the GLA interfering in planning matters particularly in Labour boroughs over the last 12 months, and with people being given a four-year mandate hopefully that will see some settlement in that area and we’ll get back to sensible decision making.”
This is backed up by data from Radius Data Exchange which showed that in the first quarter of 2018 27% of planning applications were refused.
“There was a general air of pause across the industry, certainly in development in London, and that was both from a developers perspective a considered choice and to some extent was put upon us by local authorities,” said Clifford.
To send feedback, e-mail Louise.Dransfield@egi.co.uk or tweet @DransfieldL or @estatesgazette
