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London will have more consolidation centres in the future, according to plans published by Mayor Boris Johnson.

The proposals are contained in a consultation document on the future of all planning for London. Among the proposals are to "support consolidation centres and encourage break bulk facilities - sites that allow distributed goods to be moved from large lorries onto smaller and more environmentally  friendly vehicles".

The Mayor's ideas also include the encouragement of rail freight interchanges, which, Johnson says, are "likely to be located in the green belt".

Both measures seem likely to encourage the established trend of an increase in the number of vans in inner London as opposed to trucks.

A spokesman for the Mayor says that although the document is just a consultation paper, it is also a statement of his intentions and, as such, planners may well bear it in mind when approving or rejecting planning applications.

The paper will move from being a private to a public consultation later this year, and should be formally incorporated into the published London Plan in 2011.