Sir Sadiq Khan has quietly rebooted his affordable housing programme – with “building more homes” becoming the number one priority of his third term.
The London mayor approved the launch of a £3.5bn housebuilding programme on Monday, with a “particular focus on social and affordable homes”.
But City Hall admits that “London has a mountain to climb” to provide the number of homes needed - 87,992 new homes a year from 2026, according to the Government.
Key targets within the mayor’s plans include building 40,000 new council homes by 2030, as well as 6,000 “rent control” homes for key workers and establishing a new “interventionist” City Hall developer – all promises from his 2024 mayoral election manifesto.
Achieving these targets would be a major achievement, based on the current state of London’s subsidised housebuilding industry.
Earlier this month, the annual London housing monitor, published by the London Assembly, revealed that only 3,991 affordable homes had been started in 2024/25.
This means that work has begun on less than a third of the 17,800 affordable homes the mayor committed to starting between 2021 and 2026.
Two months ago the Government slashed the mayor’s target, from a previous range of 23,900 to 27,100 starts, to the current range of between 17,800 to 19,000, due to the “difficult conditions London currently faces”.
Sir Sadiq also plans to spend almost £600m over the next three years helping councils and housing associations to renovate existing social housing.
Last month a clip circulated on social media falsely claimed that the 40,000 new council homes earmarked by the mayor would only be for Muslims.
The Greater London Authority has published a list of 14 “strategic, high-level, programmes” it is leading – plus a further seven led by organisations within the mayor’s wider empire, such as Transport for London or the Metropolitan police.
These are:
1. Building more homes
2. Making best use of land
3. Improving London’s housing stock
4. Reducing inequalities
5. Accommodation and wider support for those who need it most
6. Reducing non-residential emissions
7. Delivering a greener, more climate-resilient London
8. Cleaning London’s air
9. Supporting Londoners to benefit from growth
10. Supporting and inspiring young London
11. Boosting London’s growth sectors
12. Helping local economies to thrive
13. Upgrading London’s infrastructure
14. Celebrating London
15. Reducing violence and exploitation
16. Building safer, more confident communities
17. Supporting and overseeing reform of the Metropolitan Police Service
18. Improving the Criminal Justice System and supporting victims
19. Healthy streets
20. Decarbonising transport
21. Providing more effective, accessible and affordable public transport.
According to City Hall, the homebuilding crisis – seen by “steep falls” in housing starts, completions and planning applications – has been caused by higher inflation and higher construction costs.
The mayor’s plans state: “Lack of affordable housing is also holding back London’s economy and potential for further growth.
“Eight years after the Grenfell Tower tragedy more than a third of high-rise buildings with unsafe cladding are yet to start remediation works; 14 per cent of privately rented homes in London fail to meet the Decent Homes Standard, along with eight per cent of homes in the social rented sector; and 210,000 homes a year need to be made more energy efficient to help London reach net-zero by 2030.”
