[Reposted] "London: We'll be nine million by 2020, a new borough every three years"

Link to Evening Standard

"Within the next 10 years London’s population will pass its 1939 all-time high of 8.6 million — and march remorselessly on towards the nine million mark, making us the first city in Europe to hit this figure and putting us ahead of New York.

"...With this number of people needing to be housed, heated and moved around, London planners have been forced to think radically, about how the capital’s already struggling networks will cope with more people — equivalent to adding a new borough every three years.

"... Perhaps the biggest worry is how London’s already creaking transport networks will cope. The capital is already Europe’s most congested city, and five of the UK’s worst congestion hotspots are in the capital. A population of nine million will mean around 27 million trips a day being made in London.

"Even if all the funded infrastructure improvements — a list headed by Crossrail — are completed, delays will increase by 14 per cent, according to a report for the London Assembly.

"More of us will live in the outer suburbs, according to Yolande Barnes, director of residential research at Savills. She believes that nothing less than a radical rethink of the London suburbs — urbanising the leafy Metro-land — will solve the crisis. She says:

"The challenge is building a Birmingham in the outer suburbs, which are surprisingly low-density for such a big city. They could accommodate a lot of people if they took on more of the characteristics of inner London."

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"LONDON DISTRICTS RIPE FOR A POPULATION BOOM"

"For the Mayor's chief of staff Sir Edward Lister, the key to housing London is making sure the major brownfield sites around the capital, which could absorb much of the population grwoth, are fully developed.

"These sites include:

• Nine Elms
• King's Cross
• White City
• the Olympic Park
• Croydon
• Elephant & Castle
• Old Oak Common
• the London Quarter around the Shard, at London Bridge.
  
  [No mention of Brent Cross Cricklewood, you'll notice!]

"The London Plan also identifies nine areas ripe for 'intensification', as better transport links bring them closer to central London. These include areas such as Colliers Wood and West Hampstead."