Help us clear up London

London has a chronic land shortage, which pushes house prices up and drives people out of the city to find somewhere affordable to live. At the same time, thousands of streets are scarred by empty spaces, abandoned for years behind temporary hoardings that attract graffiti and flyposting.

Homes & Property?s spring campaign will target this urban blight. Why are spaces lying unused when there?s an urgent need for housing and, for that matter, shops, offices and leisure facilities? We need your help to tell us about problem sites in your area. Top targets are sites that have remained boarded-up for several years without any sign of development taking place. If you pass an ugly hoarding on your way to work every day or look down from the top of a double-decker bus wondering why a potentially useful piece of land is lying ignored, tell us now.

How much empty space is there?

According to the latest official figures, there are about 8,000 empty or unused sites in London, ranging from a parcel of land big enough for a single house and garden to massive sites such as Barking Reach. Discounting land earmarked for commercial development or needed for something else such as transport links, this leaves 2,500 sites, each with space for between 10 and 6,000 new homes. Some, but not all, of these have planning applications in the pipeline. This translates into a potential 19,000 new homes a year between 1997 and 2016, says the Greater London Authority. Adding in empty homes that could be brought back into use and other types of development such as student halls of residence, the total rises to 23,000 a year.

The amount of empty land recorded could, however, be a massive underestimate. The GLA is currently pulling together up-to-date information on unused land in the first annual audit of London?s brownfield sites. This could reveal sites not previously accounted for.

Why the delays?

The reason clearly depends on the site but it?s usually a combination of planning delays, fluctuating local- and central-government priorities, complex financial deals that come unstuck and local opposition. In a period of rising land prices, a site may change hands a number of times; in a slow market, owners may hold onto land until they can sell, which can depend on getting the right planning permission.

What?s being done?

Central and local government are finally getting to grips with the basic question of where London?s unused sites are and how much land is actually available for development. Until the late 1990s, no one even knew exactly how much land was lying derelict and unused and where it was, which made it almost impossible to judge if developers were meeting the Government?s target of building 60 per cent of new homes on previously used land. It wasn?t until the end of last year that the GLA published the first Housing Capacity study, showing the location and extent of land with potential for development. Starting this year, the information will be updated annually by the boroughs. At the same time, central government is building up a National Land Use Database. In future, you may be able to log on and find out what?s in store for your nearest boarded-up gap.

Action at last

Work has started on a new high-security police station on the site of the former Army and Navy department store in Lewisham High Street, which was demolished in November 1995. The police station plans met stiff resistance from local residents and the council but both were overruled. ?We would have preferred a mixed development or retail,? says Louise Holland of Lewisham?s planning department. ?We felt there could have been a development that would have better benefited the town centre.? Residents are resigned to the development: anything is better than a hole in the ground.