News from Siân Berry: All key workers must benefit from the Mayor’s public land pledge

London Assembly Member Sian Berry has welcomed a pledge by the Mayor of London to push for a proportion of homes on NHS land to be reserved for health service workers.

However, she has called for key worker housing to be more widely introduced across the public sector.

Today, in response to a written question from Sian Berry, the Mayor promised to work with the health service to dedicate a proportion of NHS land to homes for health workers .[1]

Sian Berry says:

“Providing homes for NHS staff on NHS land is a common sense, practical way to deal with the housing crisis faced by some of our most vital public servants. “But more and more of our public and emergency service workers are being forced outside of London by rising living costs and the Mayor must make this a wider priority for his new housing policies. He must go further and not restrict this initiative to the NHS, but include police, fire service workers, teachers and other essential staff.”

In June, Sian released a report that revealed half of London’s borough police officers live outside London [2] and the London Chamber of Commerce report ‘Living on the Edge’ showed that 54% of frontline 'Blue light' workers, including police, fire and paramedics, now have to commute into the city to work.[3] In March, the NUT found that 60% of young teachers surveyed said that they could not see themselves still teaching in London in five years’ time.[4]