Places for London – how scale can drive social, environmental & health impact across the capital

Who is the biggest landowner in London? It wasn’t long ago that this title was held by the great estates like Grosvenor and the Crown. But over the last decade, a new entity has emerged to claim the title.

Places for London (PfL) as it is now known since changing its name in 2023 from TfL Properties, is London’s largest landowner. It is an independent organisation and wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London (TfL). With the name change came a change in management and scale of ambition. It genuinely aims to change the face of the capital, and in so doing, redress the many inequalities such as healthy life expectancy shown in the image above.

The scale of opportunity is enormous. PfL currently owns and manages over 5,500 acres of land across London, over 1,000 individual properties, and 2500 leases across sectors including retail, offices, arches, residential, car parks and industrial. The portfolio is valued at £1.54 billion as of March 2025.

Places for London plans to develop 20,000 homes by 2031, targeting 50% of these as affordable housing. Its ambitions are dependent on partnerships with a range of organisations including local authorities and commercial developers.

Recent events have spotlighted the scale of opportunity. The government’s announcement to encourage housebuilding near well-connected train stations by allowing planning permission by default  will enable the bulk of PfL’s sites to be developed without delay. This week the Earls Court Development Company, of which PfL shares ownership with developer Delancey to redevelop the Earls Court site in west London, received planning permission from Kensington & Chelsea for its regeneration plans --- completing the requirements to proceed after receiving permission from Hammersmith & Fulham last month.

I sat down with Graeme Craig, PfL’s CEO and Lucy Atlee,  Quality & Design manager, to explore how they see the opportunities for both investment and impact across London.

The first thing we talked about was PfL’s Sustainable Development Framework, and its 100 (!!!) KPIs. These are categorised along nine “dimensions” of sustainability which are grouped under the three core categories that directly represent PfL’s mission:

·      Promoting vibrant and diverse communities

·      creating healthy places for people and planet

·      supporting and developing local economies

What makes this so special, according to Graeme Craig, is that the framework is deployed for the long term. Unlike many transactional housebuilders,  PfL adds the role of steward to its roles as designer, developer and builder of places.

To demonstrate this, PfL published its first Contribution Report which measures its contribution to  the “economic, social and environmental value” of London at £440m in 2024. breaking this down into areas health benefits, education and career benefits and cost-of living savings

We talked about the organisation’s Skills Hubs. There are currently four and about to be five hubs across London which to date have trained 10,500 Londoners in skills ranging from HGV operation to specialist construction techniques such as retrofit to developing and managing buildings to Passivhaus standards.

I asked how health & wellbeing, as one of the KPIs in the Sustainability framework, is framed and measured. Lucy explained how a map of London broken down by life expectancy guides their framing of health and wellbeing. This drives a deeper recognition of social determinants of health, including skills training and employment, which is carefully measured through PfL’s skills hubs.

We discussed how PfL might partner with the NHS to help develop its Neighbourhood Health Service, and Graeme expressed an ambition to develop an “exemplar of local health provision” on a PfL site. He sees PfL “uniquely positioned” to define and deliver a “place-based approach to health” through  the convergence of transport, infrastructure and local population density.

 I focused in on Build for Health principles and how PfL thinks about this. We discussed social determinants of health and in particular affordable housing, Graeme explained  PfL’s commitment to a 50% affordability target on all its developments, admitting the challenges this presents but also emphasising the need to avoid a “race to the bottom” in setting achievable targets. We then discussed some more specific aspects of building for health, and two stood out for me.

The first is the adoption of tools to understand and improve the experience of places for older people. One of PfL’s partners is the University of Stirling, where researchers have developed a tool to ensure that “homes, premises and public places more accessible to an ageing population and those living with dementia”.

The second is a commitment to Passivhaus design in housebuilding. In addition to designing healthy homes, PfL is training local people to construct Passivhaus compliant buildings through its skills hub in Bollo Lane, west London. This hub is sited at the biggest Passivhaus development in London.

At a time when the need for healthy homes has been acknowledged through both official government guidance and enshrined in law, this is a significant commitment. According to the Passivhaus Trust, its design standards are “the proven route to healthy homes”. It states: “

“The Healthy Homes guidance and Awaab’s Law signal a powerful shift: a national commitment to homes that nurture rather than harm. Passivhaus has been delivering exactly that for over 30 years - evidence-based, people-centred and future-proof. As the UK raises the bar for housing quality, Passivhaus provides the blueprint to achieve it - a tried, tested and trusted route to healthy, safe and resilient homes for everyone”.

The size and scale of PfL means that adopting good practice has ripple effects throughout the built environment supply chain. All partners and suppliers are expected to operate and deliver to the standards set by PfL. In this capacity alone PfL has a role as a significant change maker through the sheer number of organisations and projects with which it can apply and demonstrate good practice.

Thanks to Graeme and Lucy for their time and enthusiasm. I came away informed and energised from our discussion, and impressed with the commitment that London’s largest landowner has to improve our city’s built environment in a sustainable and socially responsible way.

Clare Delmar

Listen to Locals

18 December 2025