Providing affordable homes for rent

In the final year of the Boris Johnson administration, the London Assembly Housing Committee looked at how London government can better support the building of new affordable homes for rent in London.

With high house prices and housebuilding lagging behind demand, London’s affordable housing stock continues to be at a premium. This is leaving those on low-to-middle incomes struggling to survive in the capital. For this reason, the Assembly’s Housing Committee has devoted three of its recent sessions to looking at issues arising from the current policy on affordable rented homes and innovation in their development.

The Committee looked at challenges facing housing associations on delivering the Affordable Rent (AR) model in November 2015, before undertaking a site visit to Barking and Dagenham in December to look at the innovative models being used in the borough to develop new affordable homes for rent. Finally, it discussed innovative investment and development models for affordable homes for rent in London in January 2016.

This letter, which was sent to Mayor Boris Johnson on 21 March 2016, sets out the Committee’s findings from these sessions. It identifies several considerations for future housing policies in London, highlighting that a future Housing Strategy should:

• encourage boroughs to work with private investors who want to invest in affordable rented housing;
• set out ways to encourage innovative housing models and income-based approaches;
• bring forward “clearer and more definite” guidance on the level of affordable homes expected in new developments; and
• set out a number of different options to make best long-term use of publicly-owned land.