London Mayor joins housebuilders to call for urgent investment in new homes

The Mayor and London Councils together re-convened the ‘London Housing Delivery Taskforce’ in August and September, bringing together the London housing industry to discuss solutions for the capital after experts warned of a major decline in housebuilding across the country. This has been driven by high interest rates, building cost inflation and a lack of leadership from the Government.

Today, in a letter to Michael Gove, secretary of state for Housing, the Mayor has warned of a lack of national leadership in this area and called for the Government to match his commitment to boost the supply of new homes and implement the Taskforce’s recommendations in order to avoid a serious downturn in housebuilding.

An industry-endorsed ‘joint position statement’ sets out the most critical challenges facing housing developers in the capital and some of the major interventions that both the Government and City Hall can take to rectify them.

The statement, endorsed by 26 key partners, including housing associations, local authorities, developers and industry body representatives, includes 29 recommendations for the Government to ensure the long-term viability of the capital’s housebuilding sector.

Among the proposals is a major boost to council homebuilding, which is needed to protect jobs and the wider construction sector supply chain. City Hall is pledging to take action to support social landlords by asking the Government to make access to centralised funding more straightforward and launch a new council homes acquisitions programme.

However, the Taskforce warns that Ministers must also act: an immediate injection of grant funding combined with a new lower lending rate for councils could unlock the capacity for an additional 5,000 council homes in the capital.

Other measures Ministers are urged to take forward include scrapping the proposed new ‘Infrastructure Levy’ and removing the uncertainty caused by a lack of clarity on fire safety rules around second staircases on taller buildings, which are holding up developments.

Adopting the Taskforce’s recommendations would build on the strong record of housing delivery during Sadiq’s mayoralty. London has completed more homes of all types in recent years than at any time since the 1930s and delivered higher council homebuilding than at any time since the 1970s.

Earlier this year, Sadiq celebrated meeting the hugely ambitious affordable homebuilding target of starting 116,000 homes, set under the Government’s 2016-23 Affordable Homes Programme, by March 2023. Nationally, Ministers have failed to meet their target, and Sadiq has called for unallocated funding to be given to London to spend.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Building the homes Londoners so desperately need has always been a top priority of me as Mayor. Since 2016, we have managed to get London building again, with record numbers of affordable homes being built. But we risk going backwards again due to the lack of national action.

“This new blueprint to maximise housebuilding in London, which has been established as a result of collaboration with the flagship London Housing Delivery Taskforce and London boroughs, sets out the action City Hall will take to build a better, fairer and more prosperous city for all Londoners, and the steps ministers must now take to safeguard the delivery of thousands of homes across the capital.”

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

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