Conservative London Assembly Member Thomas Turrell AM has condemned Sadiq Khan’s “complete, catastrophic failure” to provide housing after new figures revealed that the Mayor’s 2021-26 Affordable Housing Scheme has delivered less than 10% of the housing the Mayor promised.
The Affordable Housing scheme, which was funded with roughly £4bn by the Government in 2021, was intended by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to provide 35,000 homes for Londoners amid an acute housing shortage in the capital. This target was watered down to 19,000 and then 17,000 by the new Labour Government when it became clear that the Mayor would not reach them.
Yesterday, at the conclusion of the project, figures suggested that the Mayor had started 14,000 homes, and only finished 2606. This represents just 7% of the original 35,000 promised to Londoners who have seen their rents and mortgages spike in recent years.
Thomas Turrell AM said:
“Whenever anyone tells you that we need to build on green spaces to solve London’s housing crisis, show them these numbers. If the Mayor actually built the houses he promised, on the land that has already been acquired, then we could move the dial on housing costs in the capital. Instead, the Mayor is rewarded for failure and allowed to let this scheme fall apart whilst blaming anyone but himself. We should be incentivising a brownfield-first approach to providing the housing that London desperately needs, but instead, it is dithering from Sadiq. A simple ban on allowing developers to build on green spaces whilst brownfield land exists would be a massive boost to programmes such as this and would improve housing costs whilst retaining our precious public parks and green spaces.”
Sadiq Khan has previously been placed in special measures by the Labour Government after City Hall Conservatives wrote to the Housing Secretary to complain about poor performance from schemes such as the Affordable Housing Scheme. Ultimately, it is Londoners who will pay the price.
