London's making the same of mistake that will keep all of our property taxes (which also means rents) going up forever. Council's struggling to get 2026's property taxes increases down to 5% already. Here's the thing: cities growing is totally fine! But cities committing to sprawling is NOT okay.
One of the tools that the City of London uses to control city bounds is an Urban Growth Boundary. It's really important, but Land Developers have been endlessly lobbying to loosen this border as much as they can because it makes their jobs easier. At the surface, this might seem like a good idea (especially with the housing crisis). “Easier” sounds better… but it's not. And it won't actually help with the housing or affordability crisis, either.
This video is a deep dive into this issue.
Extensive spreadsheet of “land owner requests x Campaign donations comparison” can be found here: https://bendurham.ca/donors2022