The number of housing starts for affordable homes in Greater London fell sharply last year, official figures reveal.
The Government figures show the number of starts dropped from 26,386 in 2022/23 to just 3,156 between April 2023 and March 2024.
A spokesperson for London Councils told the BBC that while work started on more council-built homes in 2022 than in any year since the 1970s, market conditions are now ‘incredibly tough’.
There are ‘a lot of barriers’ even on sites with planning permission, including ‘skyrocketing construction costs, and in recent years, a lack of capital funding and infrastructure’, the spokesperson for the cross-party body said.
They added: ‘London's higher land values mean that current grant levels are insufficient to secure the viability of schemes. Many boroughs can't make up the shortfall – across London there's a cumulative £700m funding gap in social housing budgets.’
