Healey attacks ‘lack of ambition’ in Boris’ London Plan

On behalf of the government, John Healey has written a response to Boris Johnson’s draft London Plan. In it he claims the mayor’s ambitions for house building fall short of even the lowest estimates of demand.

‘Your own data demonstrates that London needs 18,200 affordable homes per year. Yet the plan proposes a target of just 13,200,’ he writes.

‘This represents 40 per cent of all new housing in London, down from 50 per cent under the last London Plan, and your election promise to build 50,000 affordable homes over three years has now been stretched over four years.’

Mr Healey says London needs 326,000 homes over the next decade and 180,000 of them must be affordable. He also says 80 per cent of the affordable homes should be for social rent, whereas the mayor’s plan sets this at 60 per cent.

Mr Johnson has scrapped his predecessor Ken Livingstone’s pledge that 50 per cent of all homes built should be affordable, replacing it with the 50,000 home target. This is also criticised by Mr Healey.

‘The move to a more numerical target for new affordable homes, away from a percentage, may make it more difficult for you and the Greater London Authority to use your powers to intervene on individual sites to ensure affordable housing is being built,’ he states.

Mr Healey is also critical of proposals to increase eligibility for the government’s first-time buyer scheme, Homebuy Direct, from an income of £60,000 to £74,000, saying this would spread resources more thinly.

And he voices concerns about moves to give more power to London boroughs, saying the plan is unclear on what will happen if boroughs fail to do their bit to meet wider housing needs in the capital.

He concludes: ‘The London Plan is a long term plan. It needs to show how London’s housing need will be met over the next 20 years. The scale of ambition described in the plan does not yet do that.’

Richard Blakeway, the mayor’s advisor on housing, said: ‘The mayor remains well on track to deliver more affordable homes in London than any other mayor and has already overseen the funding of over 20,000 affordable homes since he was elected despite facing some of the most severe economic conditions seen in the last century.

‘London’s house prices are almost double the national average and the mayor is committed to helping families on modest incomes in need of larger homes who are currently ignored by the government one size fits all national cap on the first-time buyer scheme.’

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