Mayor of London: Highest number of council homes started since 1970s
The Mayor of London’s office has said it has “breathed new life into homebuilding” with some 4,689 new council homes started this financial year.
Sadiq Khan said it was the highest number of new council homes since the 1970s, under the Mayor’s Building Council Homes for Londoners programme.
The number of homes started annually had increased six-fold since 2016, the Mayor’s office said.
The Greater London Assembly Conservatives criticised the announcement, saying only 1,632 council homes had been completed since the programme’s launch in 2018.
The Mayor’s office said just 774 homes were started in the final year of the previous mayoralty and that houses took a few years to build.
In response, the Mayor of London’s office also said 2,038 homes were completed in 2020-21 while 2,510 were completed in the year before.
For the 2018-19 year, some 1,592 homes were completed, the Mayor’s office added.
Andrew Boff, Greater London Assembly Conservative housing spokesman, said: “No one can live in a building site. It’s the number of completed council homes that matter to Londoners.
“There’s no excuse for his abysmal completion figures. The Mayor has been given nearly £9bn from two unprecedented government grants to tackle London’s housing crisis. He urgently needs to pick up the pace and deliver the homes Londoners desperately need.”
Under the new 2021-26 affordable homes programme and the current scheme, some 79,000 affordable homes will be started over the next five years, the Mayor’s office said.
“I am proud to say that we have breathed new life into homebuilding in London with boroughs across the capital rising to the challenge of building the homes Londoners so desperately need,” the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said.
New standards in a fresh London Plan “will ensure council homes of the 2020s are a new generation of spacious, light, green homes that will serve generations to come.” Khan added.
“Thousands of Londoners will spend this Christmas in secure, affordable council homes because of what we have achieved over the last five years. We must now build on this success, empower councils and deliver the homes we need to tackle London’s housing crisis.”