Sadiq breaks own record for genuinely affordable home starts

Sadiq calls for improvements to genuinely affordable housing delivery after the pandemic as record broken for new affordable homes

• Record number of more than 17,000 affordable homes started on London sites in 2019/20
• More council homes started than in any year for more than three decades
• Sadiq’s housing recovery taskforce to consider how London housing sector recovers from Covid-19 crisis
• Group working to improve social and other genuinely affordable housing delivery after the pandemic

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced today that more genuinely affordable homes were started last year than at any time since records began in 2002/3, as his Covid-19 Housing Delivery Taskforce considers how to emerge from the coronavirus crisis with a focus on delivery of the social and other genuinely affordable homes London needs.

New statistics released today show 17,256 affordable homes were started in the year ending March 31 2020 – exceeding the target of 17,000 and breaking the Mayor’s own affordable housing record, with more genuinely affordable homes being started last year than at any time since records began in 2002/3.

This total has been achieved despite two years of uncertainty caused by the prospect of a no-deal Brexit and Covid-19 restrictions impacting on the final weeks of the financial year. Analysis by the estate agent Savills estimates that the coronavirus has led to construction being halted on sites involving 28,600 homes in London, equivalent to 79 per cent of total supply in 2018/19. Savills also found that most larger housebuilders have halted new acquisitions and fewer sites are being brought to market.

Sadiq’s housing taskforce is looking at how the sector can adapt after the pandemic and once again work towards achieving the level of delivery announced today, in order to create the jobs and homes that Londoners will need.

Today’s figures show more than 7,000 (7,156) homes will be available at social rent levels, an increase of 80 per cent since last year and more than the total number of homes for social rent delivered over the entirety of the previous administration (4,417 from 2012/13 to 2015/16).

More than 3,300 new council homes have also been started in London over the last year – the most in any year since 1984/85 (see note 1).

These figures underline the Mayor’s determination to do everything in his power to tackle London’s housing crisis and he is urging the Government to give him greater powers and resources to continue this success.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: “Today’s record-breaking figures show that we are doing more than ever before to tackle the capital’s housing crisis by building more of the genuinely affordable homes Londoners need, but we know there is a mountain to climb to kickstart the housing sector again as we ease out of lockdown.

“We continue to defy the doubters by breaking not just our own, but historic records year after year, but this pandemic is a massive challenge to our ambitious targets. Now, Government needs to match our ambition and determination. We have proved that we can make sustained progress and now we need ministers to acknowledge this and support us with the funding and resources we need to support the London housing sector as it emerges from the coronavirus crisis.

“The crisis poses a unique challenge to the housing sector, but my team are already working with partners in boroughs, construction, planning and housing associations to make sure we can continue to deliver the genuinely affordable homes Londoners need in the years ahead.”