Responding to the Mayor’s Housing Strategy published today, Labour’s London Assembly Housing Spokesperson, Tom Copley AM, said:
“The Mayor promised ‘A City for all Londoners’ and has always acknowledged nowhere was that more urgent than housing policy. In the first year of Sadiq’s Mayoralty, we’ve already seen innovative reform of the viability process and London’s record funding deal to secure more and better housing Londoners can afford. The Mayor has always said this was ‘a marathon not a sprint’ and the Housing Strategy published for consultation today represents a step change in pace. I welcome the range of both long term solutions such as land purchases to immediate, much needed fixes, including the end of conversions from social to intermediate rents at the end of tenancies. I would urge the Mayor to use his land purchases to support London’s local authorities to build a new generation of council housing, not just to sell on to developers.
“The government must devolve the extra powers the Mayor needs to deal with the housing crisis. Top of the list should be powers to help London’s two million private renters by introducing longer tenancies and regulated rents. They must also untie the hands of London’s councils by removing the cap on council borrowing to build housing. It is absurd that it is easier for a council to borrow to buy a shopping centre than it is for them to borrow to build new council homes.
“This strategy represents the ambitions of a Mayor who knows housing in our city is a problem, and recognises City Hall must lead the solution. After eight years where the previous Mayor failed to help ordinary Londoners, exacerbating the many sharp edges of our housing market, I urge all Londoners to take the opportunity of the consultation to help shape housing delivery that is truly for all of us.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
- Tom Copley AM is a Londonwide Assembly Member