Housebuilding in London has plummeted in the run-up to the mayoral election: Here’s which boroughs are approving the fewest new homes
It seems the capital's local authorities have got a case of the heebie-jeebies in the run-up to the mayoral election – after a new report showed approvals for new homes have plummeted.
The report, by estate agent Stirling Ackroyd, found London boroughs gave the thumbs-up to a mere 4,320 homes in the first quarter of the year – meaning just four in 10 planning applications for new homes were approved. That's a fall of 64 per cent on last year.
That said, the number of planning applications was also down. During the quarter, there were 7,050 new homes, "significantly behind" the 14,400 applications boroughs were given in the same period last year.
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In the first quarter of 2015, 11,870 new homes were approved in the capital, with 47,460 given the green light during the full year.
Southwark was the borough which said yes to the most planning applications, with 95 per cent of new homes – that's 318 of them – given approval, while Westminster followed, with 95 per cent, of 626 new homes.
That was followed by Kensington and Chelsea and Barking, which both gave the green light to 94 per cent of applications. That's good news for first-time buyers in the area…
"Housing is politically fashionable, but sadly not politically practical," pointed out Andrew Bridges, Stirling Ackroyd's managing director.
" As the Chancellor demonstrated in the Budget last month, housebuilding can slide down the agenda quickly. It’s imperative this slide doesn’t happen this summer after the new Mayor takes office in City Hall. There’s no easy fix, and building alone isn’t sufficient to get people on the home ownership ladder. But enough new homes are a necessary starting point that is still so far away from reality."
Figures published by Foxtons yesterday suggested the capital's house prices are in for a testing year. After a strong first quarter, pushed up by a frenzy as buy to let investors got their transactions in before stamp duty was hiked on rental properties, the company said it expected the rest of the year to be "challenging".
London's housebuilding hall of shame
Havering gave the thumbs-up to the fewest homes (Source: Stirling Ackroyd)