(SIR) Mick Jagger Can’t Always Get What He Wants—But London Needs What He Opposes

Chris Worrall

20 February, 2025 

Left Foot Forward Opinion

Mick Jagger once told the world, “You can’t always get what you want.” He was right. The wealthy and connected shouldn’t get to block homes for the most vulnerable. It’s time for London to get what it desperately needs: housing, hope, and progress.

Mick Jagger is a legend. As frontman of the Rolling Stones, he built his career on disruption—shattering norms, challenging authority, and revelling in rebellion. But when it comes to housing, it seems Sir Mick is singing a very different tune: the anthem of the entitled elite.

His opposition to the One Battersea Bridge development—a project that will deliver 51% affordable homes, including much-needed social rent properties—reeks of hypocrisy and privilege. London’s housing crisis demands urgent solutions, and Jagger’s stance is a slap in the face to the 300,000 Londoners languishing on waiting lists.

It’s almost laughable. A man whose career celebrated excess and broke all rules is now demanding limits—on height, on profit, on progress. Let’s not forget, Jagger’s band recorded songs like “Gimme Shelter” while London families were evicted en-masse during the slum -clearances of the 1960s. Today, Jagger is using his wealth and influence to oppose housing for the very people his music once claimed to champion.

One Battersea Bridge isn’t just another high-rise; it’s a rare beacon of hope in London’s dysfunctional housing market. In the middle of a city that started just 2,300 affordable homes this year—against the backdrop of over 170,000 people stuck in temporary accommodation—this scheme offers a bold path forward.

If Labour were to propose bold policy reforms using this as a case study, it should enable all 50 per cent affordable housing developments a “brownfield planning passport” that should be approved by-right on officer recommendation, avoiding the need for committee. This would cut red tape and transform underused land into vibrant mixed communities. With 51% affordable housing on offer (all social rent), this development doesn’t just meet targets—it exceeds them. And yet, figures like Jagger oppose it on aesthetic grounds.

The Labour Party’s manifesto is clear: “The biggest boost in affordable homes for a generation.” This is the very type of development Labour should champion. A project like One Battersea Bridge exemplifies the private sector stepping up, delivering not just homes but public benefit. If approved under a streamlined “planning passport,” projects like these wouldn’t languish in endless committee debates, vulnerable to the whims of celebrity-backed objections. A planning system that listens to the 83,000 children in temporary housing—rather than multimillionaires in Chelsea—is long overdue.

The hypocrisy cuts deeper. Jagger is no stranger to profiting from disruption. Whether it was selling rebellious records or dodging tax to maximise his wealth, he has always found ways to thrive in systems he claimed to oppose. Now, the campaign he supports decries the “profit” of housing developments for “foreign” investors like One Battersea Bridge—ignoring the fact that these profits fund the affordable homes that working families so desperately need.

As long as profit and height remain development’s dirtiest words, we will never fix our housing crisis. Instead of entertaining the loudest voices in the room, Labour should bulldoze outdated planning systems and prioritise those who lack even a roof over their heads. It’s time to tune out the whining of the already-housed and start listening to the voices of the homeless and the overcrowded.

London deserves better. One Battersea Bridge shows us what better can look like: a development that prioritises affordability, maximizes brownfield land, and offers a blueprint for future schemes across the country. It’s proof that the private sector, when guided by the right incentives, can help solve our housing crisis—not exacerbate it.

Mick Jagger once told the world, “You can’t always get what you want.” He was right. The wealthy and connected shouldn’t get to block homes for the most vulnerable. It’s time for London to get what it desperately needs: housing, hope, and progress.

Let’s stop dancing to the tune of celebrity NIMBYs and start building the future our city deserves

Credit: Architect’s view

Christopher Worrall is a housing columnist for LFF. He is on the Executive Committee of the Labour Housing Group, Co-Host of the Priced Out Podcast, and Chair of the Local Government and Housing Member Policy Group of the Fabian Society.