Sadiq Khan accused of ‘letting down’ Londoners on affordable housing targets

Sadiq Khan has been accused of "letting down" Londoners after new figures reveal that only 2,400 affordable homes have been built in the first six months of this year, far below the mayor's annual 14,000 target.

The London Assembly, which scrutinises the mayor, has released its annual affordable housing monitor which also claims that in 2016-17, Khan's first year in office, just over 41,300 new homes were added to London's housing stock – far short of the 66,000 homes the mayor said London needs to build each year to keep up with demand.

Khan has secured £4.82bn of government funding to start building 116,000 new affordable homes by 2022.

Chair of the London Assembly housing committee Sian Berry said: “The mayor is letting down Londoners, he promised us more affordable housing but so far has fallen very short of his promises, particularly on social housing which is our greatest need."

“With young and lower-income people suffering the most from the housing crisis, we can’t wait much longer for his policies to kick in," Berry said. "The mayor must fulfil his pledges. It is in his power to ease the housing crisis and meet his targets – especially as he has received new funding."

A spokesperson for Khan branded the report "nonsense".

“In reality, Sadiq Khan has exceeded all his housing targets and is building a record number of social and affordable homes. Last year City Hall started building more social homes than ever before – more than the rest of England and Wales combined.”

For this financial year, the mayor succeeded in starting work on 12,555 affordable homes, towards the bottom of his range for the year. City Hall claims this is the highest level of affordable starts since responsibility for affordable housing funding was devolved to the mayor.