Crowlands Heath Golf Club faces pressure as London hunts for sites to fix broken housing delivery. Labour’s 88,000-home annual target for the capital has slipped while starts fell more than 80 per cent over ten years, leaving boroughs to raid underused land. Rising costs, safety rules after Grenfell and scarce finance have sidelined builders, forcing planners to loosen restrictions on protected green space to unlock supply and curb inequality.

Forty-one courses sit in public hands across 4,325 hectares, land equalling the borough of Brent, and architect Russell Curtis claims converting Metropolitan Open Land sites could yield 50,000 homes. Mete Coban, deputy mayor for environment and energy, has signalled golf land will face scrutiny alongside old industrial plots. Only 5,589 homes began last year against a 22,000 pace needed to meet goals, intensifying the search for fast, compliant land with existing access roads and drainage.

Objectors warn many courses rank as Sites of Importance for Nature Conservation, hosting bats, deer, heron and rare beetles, and argue building will not fix affordability. CPRE London and England Golf stress environmental benefits of mature grassland, flood mitigation and urban cooling, while campaigners demand use of brownfield and already-permitted plots. Kevin Bowtell’s campaign to save Crowlands insists the club anchors community life far beyond sport.