Intermediate homes for London
The Mayor’s priority is to build more homes at social rent levels. However, the Mayor also wants to support Londoners who struggle to afford private rents or market sale homes to access safe and secure homes that they can afford.
There are many types of intermediate housing available in London, but they fall into two broad categories:
• affordable home ownership to support households to purchase their own home, and
• intermediate rent to support those who would struggle to afford private rents.
The Mayor’s Homes for Londoners Portal advertises these types of intermediate homes.
The main source of funding available to the Mayor for the delivery of affordable homes is provided by the Government through the Affordable Homes Programmes. The Mayor is currently administrating two affordable homes programmes for Londoners. This funding is shaped by the Government’s priorities, and one of the main priorities for these programmes is supporting affordable home ownership.
The Mayor’s London Housing Strategy sets out the Mayor’s preferred types of intermediate homes: Shared Ownership and London Living Rent. The Mayor wants to ensure that these homes are as effective as possible in meeting London’s housing needs.
An affordable home ownership home where purchasers buy a proportion of the home, usually with a mortgage and deposit and pay rent to a landlord on the remaining unsold share.
Service Charges Charter
Developed through close collaboration between City Hall, leaseholders and housing providers, the new Charter aims to improve satisfaction among leaseholders, particularly those in Shared Ownership, by providing a set of best-practice principles for housing providers to adopt when managing service charges. Partners receiving funding through the Affordable Homes Programme 2021-26 are expected to sign-up. Read more about the Service Charges Charter.
Longer leases
Partners receiving funding through the Affordable Homes Programme 2021-2026 are expected to offer a 990-year lease for shared ownership where it is possible to do so, to offer long-term security to leaseholders and to minimise the cost and burden of leasehold extension processes. Read the Mayor’s press release.
An intermediate rented home where rent is set at or below a third of local household incomes. Residents have the opportunity to save and purchase the home on a shared ownership basis within 10 years. The GLA publishes maximum monthly rents by number of bedrooms for new London Living Rent homes (inclusive of service charges) in every ward in London, and updates these figures each year.
GLA definition of key workers
The Mayor is committed to pursuing policy interventions that ensure intermediate housing in London is well-placed to support recovery from the impacts of Covid-19 and meets the housing needs of those Londoners who may not access homes at social rent levels, including key workers. Following the consultation (see below) on how to achieve this, the Mayor pledged that the GLA would publish a definition of key workers for the purposes of allocating intermediate homes.
Local authorities and housing providers are encouraged to reference and incorporate the GLA’s key worker definition, for example through planning agreements made under specific planning permissions. In all cases, the GLA expects local authorities and housing providers to adopt an equitable and targeted allocation process for all intermediate housing, having regard to regional and local eligibility criteria, and the established definitions of housing need.
Intermediate housing consultation
Informed by analysis of available evidence (Housing Research Note), the Mayor consulted in 2020 on a broad range of proposals in relation to intermediate homes, including how to address concerns with the affordability of shared ownership homes, what more can be done to support delivery of these homes and how allocations for intermediate homes can be made more transparent and consistent.
Respondents were invited to respond directly to the questions set out within the consultation document. Londoners were also encouraged to complete a survey on Talk London, an online community where people can have their say on questions asked in this consultation. A summary of the Talk London discussion can be found here.
Following the consultation, we have summarised the responses received and set out the GLA’s proposed policy response. The Part 1 Consultation Response Report was published in November 2020 and focuses on consultation questions which relate directly to the Affordable Homes Programme 2021-2026. The Part 2 Consultation Response Report was published in March 2021 and analyses the feedback received in relation to the other questions within the consultation, including questions on intermediate housing allocations and key workers. These policy responses are published alongside an Equality Impact Assessment.
GLA response to Government consultations on intermediate housing
The Mayor responded to the Government’s proposals on the design and delivery of First Homes in April 2020. Read the Mayor’s response.
The Mayor responded to the Government’s technical consultation on the new model for shared ownership in December 2020. Read the Mayor’s response.
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