Don’t blame the Mayor on housing
The criticisms levelled at the Mayor’s record on housing in your review of his mid-term performance do not stand up to scrutiny [“No Khan do, Mr Mayor?” September 3].
Sadiq Khan has delivered more genuinely affordable homes – homes Londoners actually need - in a single year than any of his predecessors. This includes around 2,811 desperately required social rented homes, despite the fact that Boris Johnson left zero funding for new social rented housing in the pipeline.
And while it is, of course, true that private developers have delayed schemes in London, it is not mayoral policy but the Government’s shambolic handling of Brexit that is deterring many from putting a spade in the ground.
To build the affordable homes that Londoners need, the Government would have to allocate £2 billion more a year. Sadly, it would rather criticise the Mayor than co-operate with him.
Tom Copley AM
Labour's London Assembly Spokesperson for Housing