Although Mr Khan set targets to construct 116,000 properties by 2022 the present mayor has solely begun 57,673 in the capital. Such is the speed of the Labour mayor, London Assembly members have accused Mr Khan of losing the close to £5billion value of grants handed to him by former Prime Minister Theresa May in 2018. Indeed, figures from the Greater London Authority present Boris Johnson accomplished 62,387 inexpensive properties in his first 5 years as mayor.
In distinction, Mr Khan has solely accomplished 34,569 inexpensive properties in the identical interval inside the 57,673 begins.
Commenting on the figures, Andrew Bott the Conservative Party’s London Assembly spokesperson informed City AM: “It’s no sitting on practically £5bn and patting your self on the again for breaking floor on a brand new home.
“Londoners can’t reside in a housing begin.
“The longer Sadiq Khan takes beginning properties, the later they are going to be accomplished and prepared for Londoners to maneuver in.”
Indeed, such was the low price of housing supply, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick wrote a letter to the mayor calling on higher motion for the capital in March.
Mr Jenrick referenced that housing supply has averaged simply 37,000 a yr since Mr Khan grew to become mayor.
In phrases of Mr Khan’s London plan for housing, Mr Jenrick warned an investigation had discovered that it is just credible for 52,000 properties a yr, wanting the recognized want of 66,000.
In his letter, Mr Jenrick mentioned: “Your Plan have to be delivered to the minimal stage I’d count on to ship the properties to start out serving.
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“Londoners in the best way they deserve.
“However, this have to be the baseline and given this, I ask that you start thinking about the following London Plan instantly and the way this may meet the upper stage and broader housing wants of London.”
When taking a look at figures between April 2020 to March 2021, Mr Khan had accomplished 9,051 inexpensive properties.
The mayor had additionally begun 13,318, though between 2019 to 2020, 17,256 had been began in London.
However, Mr Johnson set a excessive of 17,875 completions between 2014 t 2015, a excessive as mayor.
A mayoral spokesperson mentioned in response: “The mayor has met each one in all his inexpensive housing targets and began work on report-breaking numbers of genuinely inexpensive properties, together with extra new council properties than in any yr since 1983.
“Affordable housing completions have elevated yearly underneath Sadiq from an historic low in the ultimate yr of the earlier mayoralty.”
Christine Whitehead, professor of housing economics on the London School of Economics (LSE), mentioned the massive disparity between Johnson and Khan’s numbers could also be as a result of an elevated give attention to social lease housing in the previous 5 years.
Ahead of profitable the mayoral election, Mr Khan set new targets to construct 10,000 new council properties in the capital.
