Rishi Sunak announces plans for £200m worth of affordable new homes as he takes dig at Sadiq Khan
27 July 2023, 22:58
The prime minister has “stepped in” to address London’s housing crisis as he blames Sadiq Khan for the sky-high housing prices.
Rishi Sunak announced a review of the London Plan on Thursday, which he has said will aim to identify sites to build £200m worth of affordable new homes in London.
Sadiq Khan's London Plan is supposed to guide the development of the capital over the next 20-25 years and has a target to build 52,000 new homes a year in the city.
But announcing a review of the strategy, the prime minister made a dig at the London mayor, as he issued an autumn deadline for Mr Khan to agree changes to the London Plan - adding that otherwise Housing Secretary Michael Gove may be forced to intervene.
“The Mayor has failed to deliver the homes that London needs. This has driven up house prices and made it harder for families to get on the housing ladder in the first place,” he said.
“That is why we are stepping in today to boost house building and make home ownership a reality again for people across this great city.”
As part of the announcement, Mr Sunak also set forth a number of plans. These include:
- £150m of funding to go directly to boroughs and prepared brownfield sites for housing.
- Pre-laid out rules on the £1bil for affordable housing will be relaxed to regenerated old social housing estates.
- Another £53m is to be put into the Old Oak West project in west London, which he said will aim to support 12,000 jobs and deliver more than 9,000 new homes.
- Mr Sunak finally promised the the Docklands 2.0 development will see “beautiful, well connected homes” on “landscaped parkland” creating some 65,000 homes across several boroughs - such as Becton, Thamesmead and Silvertown.
Read more: TfL fined £10m for health and safety failures over Croydon tram crash that killed seven people
But Sadiq Khan offered a sharp reply to the prime minister’s announcement.
He wrote on Twitter: “Are you the same guy who dropped his house building targets? Because I’m the guy who started building more council homes than the rest of England combined, exceeded your affordable homes targets & built more homes of any kind than since the 1930s. This is desperate nonsense.”
In a separate statement, the mayor of London added: “This is pathetic gesture politics by the Tories in an attempt to distract from their out-of-touch government’s inaction on the mortgage crisis. Londoners won’t be fooled in the slightest.
“The Tories have a miserable record of continually blocking badly needed new housing in London across the board while Labour in London has exceeded the Government’s own affordable housing targets, delivered higher council home building than the rest of England combined and built more homes of any kind than since the 1930s.”
A spokesman for the mayor said: “The Government have relied almost entirely on London’s housing success to meet their national targets.
“Under Sadiq London has delivered 10,000 more total homes a year on average than under Boris Johnson.
“We’ve exceeded the affordable home building targets the Government set - building more homes of any kind than since the 1930s, and starting a golden era of council homes building, with the most started since the 1970s. Sadiq is building a fairer, better and green London for everyone.”
According to analysis from London Councils, 143,000 new homes could be built in London if “viability challenges”, such as additional grant funding, were overcome.
In 2022/23, a total of 25,658 affordable homes were started - a “start” on average becomes a “completion” after two years.
Mr Khan redefined affordable housing to be more inclusive of low-income Londoners, which also made them a harder target to hit under the London Plan.
While the London mayor is yet to complete as many houses as Boris Johnson’s record (17,875 in 2014/15) his completion numbers have increased year on year - with a slight dip the year the pandemic hit.
Bu the government has continued to criticise Mr Khan for failing to achieve the London local housing plan of 52,000 homes a year.
Mr Sunak said: "Too few of these homes are being built in London, and for too many Londoners the dream of owning their own home is beyond reach.
"This has driven up house prices and made it harder for families to get on the housing ladder in the first place."
