London’s mayor yesterday announced a deal to build nearly 50,000 affordable homes to rent and buy over the next four years.
The deal will see an estimated £1.7bn invested in 49,398 ‘genuinely affordable’ homes being built, Sadiq Khan said, with new homes in all 32 boroughs and the City of London.
They will be delivered by 44 housing providers – including large and small housing associations, as well as nine London councils.
Housing associations and councils made the commitment in response to the Mr Khan’s first call for bids to the £3.15bn affordable homes fund secured from the Government in November last year.
Around 17,500 will be for rents around social levels, and just under 32,000 will be for a combination of the mayor’s new London Living Rent and Shared Ownership.
‘I want to see everyone playing their part in tackling the housing crisis in London, because it is simply unacceptable that Londoners continue to be priced out of a city they call home,’ said Mr Khan.
‘We know that solving the housing crisis is not going to happen overnight, but I very much welcome so many housing associations and councils matching my ambition by committing to build the new and genuinely affordable homes Londoners so desperately need.
‘I am delighted that we have set a City Hall record for the number of homes allocated funding - but I am clear that we have got much more to do to secure the land we need to build homes and ensure we have sufficient capacity in the construction industry.’
The allocations include eight new strategic partnerships with the housing associations L&Q, Hyde, Genesis, Clarion, Network, Notting Hill, Optivo, and Peabody.
‘The commitment from London’s housing associations is an unprecedented level of ambition to build the homes the capital needs,’ said Paul Hackett, chair of the G15, representing London’s largest housing association.
‘The partnership with the Mayor is the biggest London’s housing associations have ever committed to, reflecting the urgency of the housing crisis and our strong relationship with City Hall.’
Graeme Brown, interim chief executive at Shelter, said: ‘Millions of families across the country are suffering at the hands of our housing crisis, but the situation is absolutely critical in the capital.
‘At Shelter we see the impact of our chronic shortage of affordable homes every day, with increasing numbers of people left struggling to cope as they fork out most of their hard-earned wages on expensive private rents, while waving goodbye to the chance of saving for a stable home of their own.
‘But it doesn’t have to be this way, which is why we welcome these plans from the Mayor and look forward to working with him to make sure these homes are genuinely affordable for Londoners to buy or rent in the long-term.’