Labour MP Margaret Hodge, chairwoman of the cross-party public accounts committee, said there was the potential for "sudden and unmanageable population movements" between inner and outer London and potential housing shortfalls were "deeply worrying".

BBC: Block of flats

Even so, they face a three-year wait for a place in the Jingyuan Road housing project in Beijing's outer Shijingshan district, far away from any public transportation.

BBC: Home ownership dreams in booming Beijing

In Shanghai, for instance, Mayor Han Zheng this week said that nonlocals would be permitted to rent subsidized units in certain public-housing projects in the city's outer reaches, whereas in the past eligibility hinged on their employment.

WSJ: China's Population Shifts to Cities

Waltham Forest's lead member for housing and development, Councillor Marie Pye, said outer London boroughs did not have space to accommodate people moving out of central London.

BBC: London's homeless families could rise by 5,000

The costs of climate change are heaped on outer-suburban working people, who lose jobs, mobility and housing amenity, while the affluent emerge unscathed.

FORBES: New Geographer