Sadiq Khan has warned that London will not be able to supply enough affordable houses for residents for years if more Government cash is not forthcoming. The warning comes as he today (Tuesday, May 14) launched an attack on national politicians over the building of homes after he officially began his third term as the capital’s leader last week.
Mr Khan claims that ‘Government investment is not enough, meaning that affordable housebuilding in the capital will be below the level required to house all Londoners who need it for years to come’. The mayor has also repeated his call for £2.2 billion from Westminster in ‘urgent investment’ in new social and ‘genuinely affordable homes’, which is backed by private, public and non-profit housebuilders across the capital.
In addition, Mr Khan has today committed to using City Hall funds to ‘plug a small part of the gap left by Government under-investment’. City Hall said in an announcement: “His new £100m Housing Kickstart Fund, will target stalled developments across the capital, with a special focus on switching market sale homes in stalled developments to social housing, to re-start building.”
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It comes after analysis by estate agents Savills suggested that an ‘extremely poor’ national housebuilding outlook could mean just 160,000 homes a year are started across the whole country in 2024/25.
The mayor claims that he has hit every affordable housing target set by the Government, and has ‘boosted council homebuilding to the highest level since the 1970s’. But the Government has hit back, suggesting that Mr Khan’s claims are ‘misleading’.
Government ‘working with City Hall to protect housing delivery’
A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson told MyLondon: “These claims are misleading. We have allocated £4 billion to the Greater London Authority to deliver affordable housing in London as part of our wider £11.5 billion Affordable Homes Programme, and last year saw the highest year on record for affordable housing delivery across the country, with a 12% increase in starts to the previous year.
“As the Secretary of State has made clear, Londoners are being let down by the Mayor’s failure to deliver new homes in the capital. That is why Government has taken the unusual step of intervening in the London Plan to boost housing delivery.”
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The Government claims that, since 2010, it has delivered 147,400 new affordable homes in London, and more than 696,100 new affordable homes nationally. Last year, officials add, there was a 12 per cent increase in starts when compared to the previous year
Last year, the Government says it worked with the Greater London Authority to ‘protect housing delivery’ in London by ‘allowing the mayor to renegotiate programme targets and delivery contracts’. Officials say that they are on track to deliver one million homes this Parliament and ‘remain committed to our ambition of building 300,000 homes a year’.
The Government adds that it is ‘on track’ to deliver its target of building ‘around 250,000 affordable homes’ through the Affordable Homes Programme 2016-23, with around 244,000 new housing starts delivered by March 2023, and a further 5,000 homes granted an extension to start before March 2024.
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