Mayor exceeds the upper end of Government stretched target for affordable housing starts in London

Mayor exceeds the upper end of Government stretched target for affordable housing starts in London

• Mayor of London exceeds the upper end of Government target by more than 2,000 starts with 21,001 affordable housing starts across London.

• Going forward, Sadiq vows to get stalled sites moving and build more homes Londoners can afford, backed by up to £11.7 billion in Government funding for the next decade

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has exceeded the upper end of the Government target for affordable housing starts under City Hall’s £4 billion Affordable Homes Programme.

City Hall recorded 21,001 starts under the 2021–26 programme, 2,001 above the upper target of 19,000. The result follows more than 116,000 affordable housing starts since 2016. This is despite the huge challenges impacting the industry, including higher construction and borrowing costs which have made it harder to get developments under way, while new building safety requirements and delays at the Building Safety Regulator have added to the pressures facing housebuilders. [1]

Tackling the urgent housing crisis in the capital is one of the Mayor’s top priorities and he is doing everything he can to deliver more homes of all tenures. In March of this year, the Mayor agreed with Government a package of temporary, emergency measures including a new time-limited, fast-track planning route for eligible developments, backed by £324 million in Government funding for the City Hall Developer Investment Fund. The fund is designed to help stalled developments go ahead and speed up the delivery of new homes. [2]  

Alongside these measures, the Mayor has secured up to £11.7 billion from the Government for the 2026–36 London Social and Affordable Homes Programme and has already issued offers of at least £6bn of funding in the first round of allocations, with 60 per cent of this going to local authorities to build council housing.  The funding will support thousands of new social and affordable homes, including homes for social rent.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I’m hugely proud that we’ve exceeded the Government target. Councils, housing associations, and housebuilders across London have worked hard to get these homes under way in some of the toughest conditions for housebuilding in years, and today’s figures show that our collective work is delivering for Londoners. 

“Building more social and affordable homes is a top priority and I’m taking the tough decisions needed to get them built.

 “I know we’ve still got a long way to go to tackle the housing crisis. I’m working closely with the Government to agree temporary emergency measures to get stalled sites moving. We’ve also secured funding to help build thousands more social and affordable homes over the next decade to ensure we deliver the homes Londoners desperately need, as we build a better London for everyone.”

Secretary of State for Housing, Communities, and Local Government Angela Rayner said:  “Londoners deserve decent, affordable homes and it’s encouraging to see the capital exceeding its target, as we continue to turn the tide on the housing crisis.

 “We know we need to go further though, and we’ll continue to work closely with the Mayor, with up to £11.7 billion made available to get stalled sites moving and build the social and affordable homes families desperately need.”