Publication from Darren Johnson (past staff): Crumbs for Londoners

The cranes rising above new blocks of luxury apartments are the Mayor's solution to our housing crisis. But they benefit wealthy investor landlords more than people looking for a home, and often make life worse for low income Londoners.

The Mayor actively encourages investor landlords buying new homes, whether they are overseas buyers or buy-to-let landlords from the UK. He has good reasons for this – they help get the homes built.

In this report, I explain why the Mayor is wedded to this approach. But I also argue that the model has five flaws with five fateful consequences:

1. investors, rather than occupiers, buy the homes, leaving most Londoners with little choice but a lifetime of insecure renting
2. housing wealth trickles into a smaller number of hands, including people who don’t even live in the homes they buy
3. homes are unnecessarily demolished, pushing low income Londoners out
4. residents are trampled on, rather than being empowered as the Mayor says he wants
5. very little affordable housing is built, leading to a severe social housing shortage

Download the report - Crumbs for Londoners?

You can also read more about the report in this blog on Left Foot Forward, and this editorial in the Observer.