Have to confess that I was taken aback by the recent news (see FT article here) that for new housing projects in three west London boroughs - Hillingdon, Ealing and Hounslow, the GLA have announced that it might take more than a decade (!) to bulk up grid capacity and get developments under way. 

Assuming this threat is real, my initial thoughts are:

• Staggered at the lack of foresight and how this could have happened.
• This will impact presumably not just on the residential sector but on commercial schemes.
• The necessity as part of the development DD process to engage power consultants from day 1 (sellers need to be aware and market sites with a solution to this). 
• Sympathy for buyers who may have purchased sites oblivious to the fact that this was going to become a real development risk. 
• Whether this is an issue unique to West London - are there other parts of the UK where there will also be electricity capacity challenges?   

It feels counter intuitive that the current drives to net zero (e.g. electric cars) and the need to address the UK's housing shortage are being undermined by a lack of electricity.