The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has unveiled plans to create a £250 mln (€273 mln) fund for buying and preparing land to build affordable homes in his first draft housing strategy for London.
The draft housing strategy includes a pledge to start building 90,000 new affordable homes by 2021, ensuring 'a better deal' for private renters and tackling homelessness.
The money made from selling the land to homebuilders will be recycled to buy further land for new and affordable homes. Khan also set out plans to establish a new 'London Model' of renting, working with the city's private tenants and landlords.
'It is shameful that a generation of young people are being priced out of the city they grew up in because of the housing crisis,' commented Khan. 'I inherited a development pipeline where just 13% of homes given planning permission were affordable, which is unacceptable. I’ve been honest from the start that turning things round will take time and fixing the housing crisis will be a marathon not a sprint, but my strategy sets out how we can start making a real difference to affordable housing in the city.'
The new land fund will be used alongside the £3.15 bn affordable housing budget which has already been negotiated.
Paul Hackett, Chair of the g15 – a group of London’s largest housing associations – said: 'The housing crisis is one of the most important issues facing London so g15 welcomes this comprehensive strategy.
'Collectively, the g15 housing associations will build 42,000 affordable homes in London by 2021 and we are the Mayor’s largest strategic partner. We particularly welcome the acknowledgement that City Hall has a crucial role to play in securing the land needed to build the homes, which is the single biggest challenge to increasing supply. We build around a quarter of all new homes in London. If we can secure enough land to build on, and rally the support of our partners, we can build many more,' Hackett concluded.
