The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has reaffirmed his commitment to delivering the council homes Londoners so desperately need after new Government statistics revealed an average of 89 council homes a week have been started in the capital between his election in May 2016 and the end of the last financial year.
The figures show that last year, local authorities in London started building twice as many council homes as the rest of the country, with nearly 11,000 new council homes beginning in 2022/23.
The Mayor has urged the Government not to completely give up on council housing’ as a vital way of delivering affordable homes, labelling the national figures’ appalling’.
Under the Mayor’s leadership and thanks to the efforts of boroughs, London has entered a golden era of council housebuilding. Since 2016, more than 32,000 council homes have been started in London, with 23,000 directly funded by City Hall. This compares to just 3,520 council homes that began in London in the decade before Sadiq became Mayor.
Since Sadiq took office in 2016, London has started work on nearly 5,000 more council homes than other parts of England. Housing completions are 20 per cent higher in London than the rest of the country, and London has completed more homes of all types in recent years than at any time since the 1930s, including delivering higher council homebuilding than at any time since the 1970s – more than the rest of the country combined.
This turnaround in council delivery has been driven by initiatives such as the Mayor’s landmark Building Council Homes for Londoners grant funding programme, his Homebuilding Capacity Fund, allowing boroughs to increase their ability to build after a generation of decline and the new Council Homes Acquisition Programme (CHAP), giving boroughs the resources to boost their housing supplies by buying homes from the private market. Council homes are now being built in every London borough.
In May 2023, Sadiq met the hugely ambitious affordable homebuilding target of starting 116,000 homes, set under the Government’s 2016-23 Affordable Homes Programme, while Ministers missed their target by nearly 6,500. This included over 25,000 delivered by councils. Nationally, Ministers still need to meet their targets. The Mayor has continued to call for unallocated funding to be given to London to spend to meet the aim of 10,000 council homes being purchased in the next decade and address the growing demand for genuinely affordable homes.
Housing experts have warned of a significant decline in housebuilding across the country, driven by high-interest rates; building cost inflation and a lack of leadership from the Government. In November, the Mayor and leaders from across London’s housebuilding sector delivered a new blueprint for action on housebuilding to boost the supply of new homes. The blueprint included 29 recommendations for the Government to ensure the long-term viability of the capital’s housebuilding sector – with measures including boosting council homebuilding, scrapping the proposed new ‘Infrastructure Levy’ and removing the uncertainty caused by a lack of clarity on fire safety rules around second staircases on taller buildings, which are holding up developments.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I am proud of the hard work and ambition shown by City Hall, boroughs and our housing partners to create a new golden era of council housing in the capital.
“We inherited a city where council homebuilding was nearly extinct, and many believed it couldn’t be revived. We have proven them wrong and are now reversing the years of decline. Every new home we deliver, whether that is funded by City Hall or boroughs, is another London family given the secure, long-term home they deserve.
“In contrast, the national figures for council homes are truly appalling. Today I’m urging the Government not to completely give up on council housing as a vital way of delivering affordable homes.”
“I grew up on a council estate, so I know the vital role council homes play in providing security for families. I’m determined that we continue to do all we can to build on the success of recent years, empower councils and work with all those involved in building new council homes, so we build a safer, fairer, greener and more prosperous city for all Londoners.”
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