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CIH London: City Hall to push government on lifting borrowing caps
Boris Johnson is pushing the government to give London’s town halls greater freedom to borrow and build homes, the deputy mayor has said.
Speaking at the Chartered Institute of Housing London conference, Ric Blakeway said councils should be given the power to borrow prudentially to fund new build.
Video:
Richard Blakeway at the 2014 CIH London conference
Currently, local authorities have their borrowing power limited to within strict government caps, stymying their efforts to build homes on a large scale.
But Mr Blakeway told delegates that the Greater London Authority is pushing for them to be allowed to use prudential borrowing – where they apply to be allowed to borrow for projects with low risk.
‘We are keen to see more activity by local authorities and London boroughs in terms of house building,’ Mr Blakeway said.
’Twenty-eight local authorities have a programme with City Hall, and many of them have ambitious programmes… We think there is a compelling case to encourage prudential borrowing.’
The deputy mayor also said it was ‘absolutely critical’ that City Hall was given a financial settlement for London, which would give more control over taxation in the capital.
He said this could be used to deliver more grant for new housing and reform stamp duty to incentivise new building.
He emphasised the importance of the private rented sector in the future of London’s housing market, and said ‘a major drive’, including advertising on London Underground, would be launched in a bid to sign 100,000 private landlords up to the London rental standard.
The standard, which was published last summer, introduces a set of basic minimum standards for private landlords.
Mr Blakeway also stressed the importance of housing zones to build new homes outside the centre of the city.
‘I think a challenge for us is how we spread value beyond inner London,’ he said. ‘It’s really quite hard to stimulate activity in areas which are really quite well connected.’
He said 10 housing zones, five of which have already been identified, would receive planning certainty, capital investment and tax incentives to increase development.
Mr Blakeway said City Hall would run a ‘competition’ to find the remaining five zones before the end of the year.
