Affordable homes boost for London: Khan lays out vision for capital

The investment will come from the £3.15bn Sadiq Khan (pictured) secured from the government to create an affordable homes fund.

Of the total, 17,500 homes 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. London Living Rent is a new type of tenancy Khan introduced last year to help middle-income earners in the capital save for a deposit to move into shared ownership property by offering them rents based on one-third of average local gross household incomes.

Khan said: “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.

“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.”

Paul Hackett, chair of the G15 – representing London’s largest housing associations – said: “The commitment from London’s housing associations is an unprecedented level of ambition to build the homes the capital needs. 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.”

Earlier this week Khan launched his Good Growth by Design programme in a speech at the London School of Economics. Through the initiative the Mayor is calling on London’s architectural, design and built environment professions to “help realise his vision of London as a city that is socially and economically inclusive as well as environmentally sustainable”.