Clarke welcomes 6,519 new affordable homes in Barnet and Camden

Barnet and Camden will see over 6500 new affordable homes thanks to investment from City Hall.

Figures show that the Mayor’s Affordable Housing Programme will deliver 6,519 homes, of which 2,288 will be for renters.

Local Labour London Assembly Member Anne Clarke has welcomed the investment, saying it will make the area more affordable for the community.

Finding somewhere to live can be one of the biggest challenges facing Londoners, with private rents increasing 12 per cent in the past year and the average rent reaching more than £2500 [1]. Londoners spend more than half of their income on rent [2], making it impossible for many to save up for a deposit to buy a home.

The Mayor’s Affordable Housing Programme provides subsidised housing across the capital for Londoners struggling with the high cost of housing.

The £4.8 billion investment was started in 2016 under Mayor Sadiq Khan and has seen more than 116,000 homes begin construction. More than 55,000 of these have been completed, with the remaining 62,000 set to be completed by 2029.

‘Affordable housing’ is an umbrella term that includes social rent, affordable rent or shared ownership housing.

The total number of homes include:

• 42,000 shared ownership (part ownership of a home, with a below market rent on the unbought share)
• 38,000 London Affordable Rent (roughly 50 pre cent of market rate)
• 19,000 Affordable Rent (roughly 80 per cent of market rate)
• 8,000 Social rent (roughly 50 per cent of market rate)
• 3,000 London Living Rent (a third of average local household incomes)
• 6,000 Other Intermediate housing (a range of initiatives additional to shared ownership and London Living Rent supporting Londoners struggling to afford private rents or market sale homes).

With the remaining still to be determined when construction has been completed.

Ms Clarke said:

“Housing is the biggest challenge facing Londoners – with many struggling with sky-high rent and spiralling mortgage payments.

“Thanks to this investment from City Hall, our area has thousands more homes that community members can afford.

“I’d like to thank everyone who has worked on these projects – you are helping people from our community to put a roof over their heads.

“I want to see more done to combat the housing crisis in the UK. While the Mayor of London is doing what he can, the national government must come to the table and properly invest in affordable housing, abolish section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions, and uprate local housing allowance rates so that we can end homelessness for good. On top of this, they should seriously consider the Mayor's demand to be given the power to freeze rents to stop this catastrophe from getting even worse.”