London losing new residential builds to outside communities and potential tax revenue: report

A construction site in west London, Jan. 18, 2022. (Gerry Dewan / CTV News)

A new report says London has lost residential building to areas outside of the city and officials need to act immediately in order to turn the tide.

The report commissioned by the London Development Institute (LDI) and the London Home Builders’ Association (LHBA) says the area's population is growing dramatically partially because more families relocating from the Greater Toronto Area. But the majority of family-sized houses aren't being built in the city and that means London is losing out on potential property tax revenue.

According to the latest cenus data, the metro London area is the fourth fastest-growing region in Canada, and the fastest in Ontario.

“Increasingly, the housing being built to support that population is being built outside of the London’s municipal boundaries,” said Mike Moffatt, author of the report.

Moffatt is the senior director of policy and innovation at the Smart Prosperity Institute and an assistant professor at Ivey Business School at Western University.

He points to data that shows in the past five years, single-detached home construction was up 10 per cent in London but in areas outside the city including Middlesex and Elgin it's up 80 per cent.

The LDI and LHBA are pressing city council to create "made in London" solutions. 

"Many of the provincial government's proposed solutions are more focused on Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area than the cities outside of it," said LDI executive director Mike Wallace.

(More to come)