The Mayor’s senior team claim he is on track with the “vast majority” of his promises. The Local Democracy Reporting Service looks at the key commitments
The Mayor of London is on track to deliver the “vast majority” of his 146 manifesto commitments by 2028, his senior team members have claimed – but what has he failed to deliver on so far?
Sir Sadiq Khan’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Chief Finance Officer and Head of Delivery claimed 20 of the pledges made ahead of last year’s elections have already been complete.
But they admitted there are a “small number which will be more challenging and we are not wholly confident on yet” – including vows on police numbers, freezing Transport for London (TfL) fares and electrifying London’s bus fleet.
During a session with the London Assembly Budget and Performance Committee, the progress on a number of the Mayor’s pledges were scrutinised, 16 months after he was elected for a third term in office in May 2024.
At the start of the session, Richard Watts, the Deputy Chief of Staff for the Greater London Authority (GLA), told members: “Given the financial circumstances we find ourselves in, we are very satisfied.”
Mayor’s 2024 manifesto pledges examined
Build 40,000 new council homes by the end of the decade
According to City Hall data, 3,690 council houses were completed in 2024/25. While it represented the highest figure since 2018/19, it doesn’t bode well for the aim of 40,000 new council homes between 2024 and 2028.
Jamilla Hinds-Brough, the Mayoral Head of Delivery at the GLA, insisted the Mayor was “confident that this target is on track to be delivered” but admitted the “conditions for housebuilding in London are incredibly difficult”.
Last week Deputy Mayor for Housing Tom Copley took aim at the Building Safety Regulator as a key factor in the delay in new affordable housing.
Unblock affordable housebuilding by creating new Land Assembly Zones (LAZs) and Mayoral Development Corporations (MDCs)
Seen as a way to help fix London’s housing crisis by making development easier, the Mayor has moved forward with plans to set up a Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC) by January 1, 2026 to enable him to regenerate Oxford Street. He has yet to officially implement a Land Assembly Zone (LAZ).
Mr Watts suggested that the former is a “very powerful tool but they are also expensive”, meaning that City Hall is taking a precaution-led approach when looking to set up one.
“This work is motoring on alongside government at the moment and we are making some progress,” he added. “Given the scale of London’s housing crisis, there will be areas that these kind of powers will be useful – but I will not foreshadow anything as we work through it with government. A lot of this also comes down to wider government investment.”
There are currently two MDCs within London, both set up by former Mayors. One is for Old Oak Common to allow the HS2 station site to be developed, while the other is for the Olympic Park area in Stratford, set up to allow the area’s transformation.
End Rough Sleeping by 2030
The number of rough sleepers on London’s streets between April 2024 and March 2025 was 3,028, according to the Combined Homelessness and Information Network – up 27 per cent on the previous year.
Asked if the Mayor was still on track to hit this pledge, Ms Hinds-Brough admitted that “ending rough sleeping isn’t something we can do from City Hall” and that work was needed “across all tiers of government”.
In May, Sir Sadiq launched his Rough Sleeping Plan of Action, vowing to end the “trauma” of people who have to be sleeping on the streets before they can access support. Success would be seeing no individual repeatedly coming back to the streets after accessing services provided by councils. There seems a long way to go with this one.
Work with a Labour government to put an extra 1,300 neighbourhood police officers and PCSOs on the streets
With the Met announcing cuts across the board – including the controversial proposal to shut 18 of London’s 37 accessible police station front counters – the Mayor’s team admitted that putting extra officers on the streets could prove difficult.
“It’s too early to know whether we’re going to hit this,” Mr Watts told the London Assembly, as officials were told the number of officers has reduced by 1,400 since May 2024.
“What you are right to identify is that the current financial settlement for the Met isn’t sufficient. The Mayor is continuing to do whatever he can to put extra resources into the police. This is one of the more challenging ones anyway. We continue to strongly lobby for the funding we need.”
He suggested the move to shut front counters could free up officers currently “tied up behind desks” to operate in neighbourhood policing teams. However, Assembly Members said that would breach another promise in the manifesto – maintaining a 24/7 police counter in every borough of London.
Liberal Democrat Assembly Member Gareth Roberts told the LDRS: “We heard from his own senior aide that the promise was never even tested to see if it was deliverable, and now it won’t happen.
“The Mayor has known for months that police front counters were on the chopping block, but has said nothing about it, preferring conversations behind closed doors and refusing to admit his U-turn.”
Deliver a 100 per cent zero-emission bus fleet by 2030 and air pollution filters in primary schools
Ms Hinds-Brough said that the ability to fund the electrification of London’s buses will depend on TFL’s business planning proposals this year, which will “determine our ability to meet the target”.
Mr Watts said that without any action, a 100 per cent zero-emission fleet will naturally be achieved by 2034 as buses go out of service and are naturally replaced. He said the Mayor was keen to be proactive and push TfL to bring the target forward.
Brent and Harrow Assembly Member Krupesh Hirani noted that the 28 bus, which was originally an electric vehicle, is now diesel powered – though he was told that happens when bus operators are replaced on short notice and operate with whatever fleet they have.
Officials also said that the air pollution filter rollout was underway – eight have been installed, with another 55 by the end of October, and 200 by Spring 2026 as part of a pilot scheme. This looks like one that’s largely on course to be achieved.
Get to 40,000 electric vehicle charging points in London
Officials said progress is “on track” to achieve this, and there are around 26,000 charging points in the capitals for electric vehicle use.
Freeze TfL fares until at least 2025 and for as long as economic conditions allow
Tube and train fares in London rose by 4.6 per cent in March after ministers ordered the Mayor to increase ticket prices in line with the national rail network, so this one effectively fell at the first hurdle.
Sir Sadiq has reportedly been told by the government to hike commuter costs by the RPI rate of inflation – currently 4.3 per cent – plus one per cent in each of 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029.
Officials were unable to say whether this would be a standard requirement going forward, suggesting that the Mayor will make his decision on fare rates on an annual basis at the usual time.
Following the meeting, Tory Assembly Member Neil Garratt told the LDRS: “As Mayor Khan enters his last years in office, his past promises are catching up with him. He promised 1,300 extra police at last year’s election, but he’s actually cut 1,400. He promised 3,000 affordable houses per year, last year he managed about 500.
“His Net Zero plan calls for 2.2 million homes converted to a heat pump in five years, but it’ll take an absurd 1,700 years at the speed it’s going.
“When he’s challenged, everything is someone else’s fault but as a Mayor nearly 10 years in office, who else is to blame for the promises he’s made and his failure to achieve them? Londoners deserve better.”
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