What is the Mayor doing to increase council housing for Londoners?
£4m Land for Council Homes Revenue Fund
The Mayor recognises that councils face significant barriers to upscaling their local housing delivery programmes, including challenges relating to land supply. In June 2022, the Mayor established a new £4m Land for Council Homes Revenue Fund to respond to this challenge, and to help boroughs identify a strategic pipeline of land for future council-led affordable housing delivery. The primary objective of the LCH Fund is to provide financial support to boroughs that have a short supply of land that is suitable for development, and that also have ambition to upscale their affordable housing delivery programmes over the next decade.
The Land for Council Homes Revenue Fund also supports land supply projects that build in-house skills and capacity of council housing, planning and regeneration teams; foster collaboration across London boroughs; and can demonstrate equality, diversity and inclusion outcomes for the long-term benefit of Londoners.
Further information about the Land for Council Homes Revenue Fund is set out in the Land for Council Homes Revenue Fund Prospectus.
All London boroughs were eligible to submit a bid to the Land For Council Homes Revenue Fund, with a deadline for applications of Wednesday 14 September 2022. Bidding for the GLA Land For Council Homes revenue fund is now closed.
In December 2022, the GLA confirmed bids and entered into contracts with twelve London boroughs to deliver projects through the Land For Council Homes Revenue Fund. Information about these boroughs is set out in the table below.
*Figures in the allocation column have been rounded to the nearest thousand.
GLA Right to Buy-back Revenue Fund
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is committed to delivering the genuinely affordable homes that Londoners so desperately need, particularly council homes. In 2018, the Mayor launched his Building Council Homes for Londoners programme, which set a target to deliver 10,000 council homes. The Mayor successfully achieved this 10,000-home target in March 2022.
The Mayor also launched his ‘Right to Buy-back’ fund in July 2021, in efforts to further boost the capital’s supply of council homes. The Mayor’s Right to Buy-back fund closes in March 2023.
In March 2022, the GLA launched a £1 million revenue fund to help London boroughs increase take up of the Mayor’s Right to Buy-back capital funding programme. The overall objective of the fund is to help boost the short-term capacity and resources available to council housing teams to increase acquisitions funded through the Mayor’s Right to Buy-back fund. The £1 million RTBB Revenue Fund will be administered by the Housing & Land Directorate of the GLA. Information about the new £1 million Right To Buy-back Revenue Fund is set out in the Funding Prospectus: GLA Right to Buy-back Revenue Fund.
All London boroughs were eligible to submit a bid to the Right to Buy Buy-back revenue fund, with a deadline for applications of 6 May 2022. Bidding for the GLA Right to Buy-back revenue fund is now closed.
In August 2022, the GLA confirmed bids and entered into contracts with eight London boroughs to deliver projects through the Right to Buy-back revenue fund. Information about these boroughs is set out in the table below.
*Figures in the allocation column have been rounded to the nearest thousand.
Right to Buy-back fund
Since 1980, over 300,000 council homes in London have been sold through Right to Buy, most of which were not replaced. In the absence of adequate public sector funding for new homes, this has contributed to an overall decline in the social housing stock available to Londoners.
The Mayor has launched a Right to Buy-back fund to help increase the stock of council-owned housing and to mitigate the historic impact of the Right to Buy policy on London’s affordable housing. The fund builds on the Mayor’s commitment to increase council homes in London, as set out in his Building Council Homes for Londoners programme.
Further details about the Right to Buy-back fund are outlined in the Bidding information: Right to Buy-back fund document.
The Right to Buy-back fund forms part of the Affordable Homes Programme 2016-23. Grant is being made available under this scheme to help councils, directly or within dedicated delivery bodies, purchase homes previously sold through the Right to Buy, as well as acquire other market properties, where this will address housing needs in London.
Building Council Homes for Londoners
The Mayor views getting more council housing built as an essential part of tackling London’s housing crisis. In 2018, the Mayor launched the ‘Building Council Homes for Londoners’ funding programme, to help councils to start constructing 10,000 new council homes between 2018 and 2022.
Building Council Homes for Londoners is the first City Hall programme dedicated to council homebuilding. So far, the programme has allocated:
- over £1 billion of capital funding to councils to begin the construction of 14,900 homes
- over £10 million of revenue funding to councils as part of the Mayor’s Homebuilding Capacity Fund to develop in-house skills and expertise to expand their homebuilding capacity
In addition, the 'Building Council Homes for Londoners' programme provides an innovative new approach to help councils replace homes sold through Right to Buy.
The 'Building Council Homes for Londoners' programme has enabled councils to ramp up supply once again, with 3,300 new council home starts recorded by the Greater London Authority in the year 2019-2020, the highest figure since 1983.
The 'Building Council Homes for Londoners' prospectus contains further information if you'd like to find out more.
Applying to live in council housing
If you want to apply to live in a council home, you should check your local council’s website via GOV.UK to find out how this works in your area. Your local council will have its own rules on who can apply and who has priority for homes.
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