At a glance
• Families in parts of east London are waiting up to 18 years for a council home, with 330,000 households on waiting lists citywide.
• The Government and City Hall have launched an £11.7bn programme (2026–2036) to boost affordable housing.
• MPs warned of a collapse in housebuilding and the loss of millions in developer contributions to community projects.
Families are waiting an average of 18 years for a council home in an east London borough, an MP has revealed.
It is the latest indication of the collapse in the supply of social housing in the capital that has left an estimated 330,000 households stranded on local authority waiting lists.
Calvin Bailey, the Labour MP for Leyton and Wanstead, told a debate in Parliament that 7,300 applicants were on the waiting list in his constituency.
He said: “The average wait for homes is irreconcilable—10 years for a three-bedroom home, and 14 years for a four-bedroom home.
“In neighbouring Redbridge, 3,000 families sit on the temporary accommodation register, and a wait for a three-bedroom home is 18 years, which is the lifespan of a child.”
On Friday, the Government and City Hall launched a prospectus for developers, councils and housing associations to bid for up to £11.7bn of funds to build affordable homes in London between 2026-36.
Housing Secretary Steve Reed said: “Our plans to accelerate social housebuilding across the capital will be lifechanging for thousands of families waiting for a safe, secure home of their own.
“We're backing the London mayor all the way to get spades in the ground, fire up those diggers and build, baby, build.”
Funding is available to deliver projects that can start on site by March 2036 and complete by March 2039.
At least 60 per cent of homes delivered under this programme are expected to be for social rent. Developments on the Green Belt may be allowed.
The overall target of homes to be built under the programme will be confirmed following the initial bidding round, which is expected to open in February next year and close in April 2026.
Mr Bailey told the parliamentary debate that, across London, 111,000 planned homes were “paused”, and the rate of converting planning approvals into completions was below 10 per cent.
Mr Bailey added: “One of my constituents, a mother and a nurse, has been without a stable home since she was 13.
“For 20 years, she has moved between insecure rentals and temporary housing, despite working as a public health worker and a nurse, and caring for a child under treatment at Great Ormond Street.
“She faces eviction, instability and anxiety, all because of a shortage of social housing. That is what the housing crisis looks like.”
During the debate, MPs raised concern at the proposed change in the percentage of affordable homes that developers will be required to build in London, which is being reduced from 35 per cent to 20 per cent until March 2028.
The “emergency” changes, which have been agreed by London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan and Mr Reed in a bid to get more schemes off the ground, will also reduce the requirement for developers to contribute to community infrastructure.
But this will mean that Richmond council faces losing £21.5m that it had been due to receive for the redevelopment of the former Stag brewery at Mortlake into 1,000 homes, according to Lib-Dem MP Munira Wilson.
It could also mean that Islington council will lose millions in funding and many affordable homes from the redevelopment of the Moorfields eye hospital site, according to Emily Thornberry, the Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury.
Ms Thornberry said Islington should not have to follow the mayor’s reduced targets but be able to insist that developers still provided 50 per cent of affordable homes in new schemes.
Louie French, the Tory MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup, who called the debate, said house building in London had “collapsed”.
He told MPs: “In the first nine months of 2025, construction began on only 3,248 homes.
“Molior London predicts that just 9,100 homes will be built across 2027 and 2028—that is under five per cent of the Government’s target for London.
“London is supposed to deliver more than a quarter of the Government’s 1.5 million homes target, but given the construction slowdown, that target appears to be dead in the water.”
