Wembley Matters has covered the declining primary school population in thhe borough over the past two or three years with soome schools reducing the number of classes in each year group and with the possibility of amalgamation or even closures on the horizon. Brent is not affected as much as some London boroughs but it is still an issue. Several factors have fed the decline including the number of European families leaving after Brexit, movement out of London due to affordable housing unavailablity (including Brent Council's policy of moving families on the housing list out of the borough), lack of housing for bigger families and low incomes and long working hours.
A survey of Londoners has found that almost a third (30 per cent) consider the city to be an unsuitable place to raise children, with four in ten Londoners (41 per cent) considering it to be a suitable place.
London is facing a significant demographic challenge. After a decade of rapid growth in the 2000s, the number of children living in London has since gone into decline at a faster rate than elsewhere in the UK since the early 2010s.
Between 2013 and 2023, London’s population of 0-9 year olds decreased by 99,100, despite the overall population of the capital increasing by 506,000 during the same period. The decline has been sharper in Inner London than Outer London. This has given rise to concerns that London – and particularly Inner London – could become a “child-free area”.
The London Assembly Economy, Culture and Skills Committee has today launched its report - A London for every child: Reversing the city’s declining child population – setting out steps for the Mayor to make London a more child-friendly city.
Families in London face serious financial and practical barriers, including the cost of childcare and housing. For families who stay in the capital, they are often faced with new housing developments that are designed to discourage children playing in their community, or unwelcoming attitudes from neighbours or the authorities.
The declining number of children is having a notable effect on London’s school system. Schools with falling roll numbers are facing increasing financial pressure since their funding is provided on a per-pupil basis. In recent years, this has resulted in a rise in the number of schools in London that have closed or merged due to falling pupil numbers.
Key recommendations in the report include:
- London should seek to become a UNICEF Child Friendly City. The Mayor should identify the steps required for London to achieve this recognition and pursue actions that enable him to do so.
- The Mayor should include specific requirements for homes suitable for children across all types of tenure in the next London Plan. These requirements should be included in the draft London Plan, which is due to be published in 2026.
- The Greater London Authority (GLA) should develop a map of all the spaces in London that children and young people can access for play and informal recreation. This would help boroughs identify where they have a deficit or surplus of provision and support cross-borough collaboration.
Hina Bokhari OBE AM, Chair of the London Assembly Economy, Culture and Skills Committee, said:
Children and young people are essential to London’s vibrancy as a global city. Providing the right conditions for children to flourish as they grow up and choose to remain here as adults is essential to the city’s long-term economic, social, and cultural dynamism, which further benefits the rest of the country.
We cannot allow London to become a place where only a small number of families can afford to live and even fewer can manage to enjoy a good quality of life.
The cost of housing and childcare, housing developments that are not designed with children in mind, and systems and attitudes that make family life more difficult are contributing to the declining number of children in the capital.
We heard that falling pupil numbers are placing real pressures on London’s schools. As enrolments decline, so too does funding, which makes already tight budgets even harder to manage.
This can lead to difficult decisions, including reducing the extracurricular activities that enrich pupils’ experiences, or cutting back on essential supports for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
London must prioritise keeping children and families in the city. Without urgent action, we risk seeing even more families take the decision to leave and set up their lives elsewhere.
In Brent the recent building programme under the leadership of Muhammed Butt and Shama Tatler has failed to address the housing needs of the majorty of Brent families.
The report addresses all the factors that have contriibuted to the decline in London's child population but I think the section on housing is particularly pertinent;
We found that the availability and affordability of suitable housing are key factors in the decision to have children in London. The lack of affordable housing is particularly pronounced in Inner London.Over the last decade, house prices in London have increased faster than earnings, and less than half of London households own their home, compared with around two- thirds in all other UK regions.53 In September 2025, the average price of a home in London was £556,000, compared with the England average of £293,000.
Affordability is also a key issue for renters, since London has a larger private rental sector than other UK region and the highest average rent in the country. In October 2025, the average monthly rent in London (£2,265) was 60 per cent higher than in England as a whole (£1,416) When we asked Londoners about the main reasons they might consider leaving the capital, respondents most often cited housing pressures, including the high cost of buying or renting.
Many young people understandably want to own their own home before having their first child, but this is out of reach for most Londoners. In 2024, the median home in London cost 11.1 times the median salary, compared with 7.7 times across England.57 The Office for National Statistics considers anything above five times annual income to be unaffordable. In its submission to our call for evidence, the G15, which comprises London’s leading housing associations, stated that housing costs “have consistently outpaced wages and welfare support, making London fundamentally unaffordable for many families who would otherwise choose to stay in the city.”
For those who stay in London, Susie Dye noted that unaffordable housing results in suppressed households, where “young adults [are] still living with their parents because they cannot get that first home”.59 Ultimately, this will impact whether many young Londoners feel in a position to raise children in the city.
The high cost of housing is also a major driver of poverty in London. Katherine Hill (Strategic Programme Manager, 4in10) observed that “people simply cannot afford to bring up their children” in most Inner London boroughs and that they are “faced with the choice of not having any children or moving out to have them.”
Echoing this point, Susie Dye emphasised:
“If you cannot find somewhere stable and affordable to make a home and bring up a family, then either you delay that or you move away.”
Alongside affordability, the shortage of family-sized homes in both the social and private sectors is making London increasingly unviable for families with children. However, data from the 2021 census shows that homes in London have fewer bedrooms on average than elsewhere in the country, with just 47 per cent of London homes having three or more bedrooms, compared with 63 per cent in the rest of England.62 Between 2016 and 2025, under the GLA’s Affordable Homes Programme, the vast majority (78 per cent) of homes delivered were 1 or 2 bed homes. 19 per cent of homes had 3 bedrooms and just 3 per cent had 4 or more bedrooms.
This represents just 11 per cent of the need for 3 bed homes and 8 per cent of the need for homes with 4 beds or more, based on the GLA’s Strategic Housing Market Assessment. The G15 noted in its response to our call for evidence that this “lack of appropriate housing is likely to influence families leaving London or deciding against having more children.”
When we asked Londoners about the main reasons they might consider leaving the capital, several cited the lack of space in housing as a major reason for them considering leaving London.
We are concerned that even where family-sized homes are built, families with children are not able to access them. Susie Dye claimed that data suggests that family-sized homes in London are being occupied by shared tenants, particularly young professionals without children.
A further negative effect of the lack of suitably sized homes for families is overcrowding. In its submission to our call for evidence, the G15 stated that London has the highest levels of overcrowding in England. It noted that many families “are raising children in homes that are too small, with little prospect of moving to a larger property.” The G15 referenced research conducted by one of its members in 2022, which found that of families with one child, 34 per
cent live in overcrowded conditions in London, compared with 12 per cent outside the capital.
This provides strong evidence of unsuitable housing conditions for families in London
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