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Sadiq Khan outlines London's housing crisis


The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan this week announced the "full extent of the capital's housing crisis" and accused the previous mayor of "letting down Londoners".

Khan was elected as the new mayor of London in May 2016 and immediately after taking office he requested a report showing how City Hall was tackling London's housing crisis.

According to the mayor's press release, "affordable home delivery [is] at near standstill" with 4,880 affordable homes delivered last year. "The lowest number of new affordable homes since current records began back in 1991".  Of these homes, 738 were allocated to social rent.

The previous mayor, Boris Johnson, had requested that a register of public land was put together in order to identify what was available. According to the press release, the process was "flawed" and includes "scores of sites that will never be built on".

Khan pledged in his manifesto to build 50% of all new homes as affordable housing and will publish his plan in the coming months but he intends "to build new homes on land owned by City Hall, including Transport for London land, and intends to fast track scores of sites, like Landmark Court, that are suitable for development, but not utilised by the previous mayor."

Planning expert Susanne Andreasen of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com said, "During the mayoral election campaign, Khan said that he would not set an annual delivery target for new homes but would instead focus on affordability. His initial actions after taking mayoral office continue this approach and Khan has made it clear that he does not perceive the current definition of affordable housing at 80% of market value to be genuinely affordable."

"It will be interesting to see how Khan's forthcoming plan proposes to tackle the challenges emphasised by the audit. In viability terms, a requirement for a higher level of affordable housing is likely to be reflected in land values as the profitability for developers will otherwise be adversely affected," Andreasen said.

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