"London is growing, with an estimated 10 million people expected to
live here by the early 2030s"

10 million already live in commuting distance. Presumably they mean
within the london boroughs

Isn't "commuting distance" usually reckoned to be an hour from a London
Rail Terminus? Although 10m is far too small for that.

Don't know,

The 1hr is true.

Ely within 1 hour?

Of Cambridge, yes. And while there are London commuters from Ely and
further north, it's not a huge number. Ely generates 450k trips a year
to London[1] (a tenth of that from Cambridge). That's all passengers,
and my finger in the wind for Ely is that less than half will be
commuters.

but isn't there something like 20-25 million in london and the home
counties?

8.5m in Great London today, so the extra 1.5m will be easily mopped
up by the boroughs which encircle it.

I assume the discussion is about the Greater London population. Hopefully
Spud won't get his wish if he wants enough people to be working to pay for
his pension.

[1] That's Kings Cross plus Liverpool St plus Thameslink core
destinations.
--
Roland Perry