James Cleverly says he can cut London house prices by £100,000 to stop brain drain

James Cleverly has claimed he can slash the price of new homes in London by £100,000 to stop a "brain drain" of young talent fleeing the capital.

The former home secretary, who is running to become the Conservative candidate for London mayor, warned that the city is losing middle-income workers who can no longer make the finances work. He argued that mayoral powers could be used to strip away "tax and bureaucracy" that adds £100,000 to the cost of new-build properties.

"We are losing talent. We’re losing young people from London. That is unsustainable," Cleverly told The Independent. He added that the flight is not just "multi-millionaire rock stars" heading to Dubai, but people on modest salaries moving to commuter towns like Braintree, Maidstone, or Milton Keynes.

The scale of London's brain drain

According to the Office for National Statistics, around 600,000 people left London in the year to mid-2025. This included 420,500 who moved elsewhere in the UK and 183,000 who went abroad. While the outflow was largely offset by half a million arrivals, the net loss of domestic residents remains a major political challenge.

An August 2026 YouGov poll found housing costs were the third biggest concern for Londoners at 39 per cent, trailing only the general cost of living and crime.

Cleverly argued that the cheapest new flats in London currently cost between £350,000 and £400,000, with a quarter of that price made up of administrative bloat. "If you can find a way of stripping that cost out, then suddenly young people in London are looking at flats at £250,000 and £300,000," he said.

How mayoral powers could cut housing costs

The mayor of London holds significant sway over housebuilding through the London Plan, which sets targets, planning policies, and affordable housing rules. City Hall can also intervene directly in major planning decisions, including schemes of 50 or more homes where a local borough has rejected them.

Beyond housing, Cleverly suggested he would look at cutting the mayor's portion of council tax and reviewing transport costs, including the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez).

He also took aim at Prime Minister Andy Burnham's policies. While Cleverly said he would work with the prime minister to tackle rough sleeping, he criticised Burnham's track record as mayor of Greater Manchester, calling it "not great" and warning that homelessness is a complex, technical issue that cannot be solved "just through throwing more public money at the problem."

Cleverly, who stepped down from the shadow cabinet in August to focus on his mayoral bid, confirmed he will not run again for his parliamentary seat in Braintree. He insisted the London mayoralty would be his "last big job in politics" rather than a stepping stone back to Westminster.