Sadiq Khan set to build ‘just half of annual housing target’
Sadiq Khan is on track to build just half the amount of promised new housing this year, after the latest figures show he has built fewer than 5,000, with six months left to hit a 17,000 target.
Figures released today show 2,202 Greater London Authority-funded houses were started between July and September, compared to 2,672 in the first quarter.
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The mayor of London’s target figure for 2019-20 is to start between 17,000 and 23,000 affordable homes, meaning an average of 4,874 a quarter.
Currently, City Hall is on track to build less than 10,000 new homes in 2019-20.
A total of 39,389 affordable homes have been built since the start of Khan’s mayoralty in 2016.
A spokesperson for the mayor said he was still on track to hit his target for the year, as he did last year, as house building is generally backloaded heavily to the final two quarters.
“This year the mayor has delivered more than double the number of starts compared to the same period last year,” they said.
However, Conservative mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey branded the figures as “pitiful”.
“The fact is the mayor has been given a record amount of money to build and these numbers prove – without a doubt – that Mr Khan isn’t getting the job done,” he said.
“It’s unacceptable and it’s Londoners who are suffering high rents and high house prices because of his complete and utter failure to build affordable homes.”
In 2018, Khan received £4.8bn from the government to build 116,000 new homes by 2022.
However, a report from the mayor’s office claimed the £700m annual budget wasn’t anywhere near enough to tackle the housing crisis.
Khan said City Hall needed a seven-fold increase in funding to £4.9bn-a-year to build the amount of affordable homes the capital needs.
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Recent YouGov/Queen Mary University polling showed the mayor with a big lead in the lead up to the May 2020 mayoral election.
Khan was on 45 per cent, followed by Bailey on 23 per cent and independent candidate Rory Stewart on 13 per cent.