Affordable homes in London: subsidised housing starts at highest level for eight years — as Sadiq Khan spends almost twice his budget

The Mayor pumped a budget-busting £550 million into affordable housing last year but will need to ramp up the pace to hit his target by 2021.
NIGEL HOWARD

The number of affordable homes started in London has hit its highest level for eight years after Sadiq Khan secured almost £5 billion funding from the Government.

Work began on 14,544 affordable homes in the financial year to end of March, at the lower end of City Hall’s targetted range of 14,000 to 19,000.

The total includes 3,991 homes for social rent — the lowest cost form of affordable housing — also the best since 2011. Of these, 1,916 were council homes, the highest figure in London since the mid-Eighties.

The Mayor has pledged to start building 116,000 affordable homes in London by 2022 but will need to ramp up the pace dramatically over the next two years to hit the annual target of at least 45,000 by 2021.

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Yesterday the Standard revealed how the Mayor pumped £550 million into subsidising affordable housing last year, more than twice his budget.

Mr Khan, said: “These record-breaking figures show that focusing on building council and social rented homes for Londoners is the right way to tackle the capital’s housing crisis.

“Not only do these figures beat our own records from last year, but this is more than double the number the previous Mayor started in the final year of his term.

“My Building Council Homes for Londoners programme has made huge progress already — with more council homes started than in any year since 1985.

"Councils are beginning to build again after decades of their hands being tied behind their backs — but national Government needs to match our ambition and determination to deliver the homes Londoners so urgently need.”

But Andrew Boff, the Conservative’s housing spokesman on the London Assembly Andrew Boff, said: “Early on in his mayoralty, Sadiq Khan was given £4.82 billion by the Government in order to build 116,000 homes by April 2022.

“We are now halfway through this programme, yet the Mayor has only started 34,515 new homes — a meagre 30 percent of his overall target. Once again Sadiq Khan has demonstrated that there is an enormous gulf between what he promises and what he delivers.”