Goldsmith sets out housing vision

In his housing manifesto, Zac Goldsmith has pledged to support housing associations to build in “even greater numbers”.

He claimed housing associations have said they can build two-for-one replacements of any homes sold through Right to Buy provided they have access to land and said he would work with them to “secure the land and powers they need”.

He would amend the London Plan to encourage house builders to build faster “instead of hoarding land in order to keep house prices high” and to make sure more homes are set aside for “struggling” Londoners who do not qualify for social housing.

He would “move to shorten” the period before a housing development has to begin from three to two years. Alternatively, he would lobby government to introduce an “undeveloped land levy” to make it progressively more expensive for developers to hold onto undeveloped land.

His manifesto also includes a pledge to set up a House Building Academy with the aim of cutting construction costs and backing new building techniques such as offsite construction.

The Conservative also wants to give more powers to councils to borrow to build and the ability to levy higher charges on empty properties to bring them back into use.

Councils should also be given the freedom to set planning fees, he said, to help “hugely overstretched” planning departments.

He would “guarantee” homes built on mayoral land are ringfenced for Londoners. Homes on Transport for London land will only be sold to people who have lived and worked in the capital for at least three years.

Mr Goldsmith proposes setting up a London Local Authority Housing Fund to help local authorities build more homes for the most “vulnerable” residents by pooling land, skills and money to directly commission more homes.

He will also “guarantee” that estate regeneration only takes place with the support of residents and will review existing schemes.

The new homes of residents affected by estate regeneration must be an equivalent size with unchanged rents, he said.

If he were to win the election, Mr Goldsmith has pledged to issue new planning guidance within six weeks of taking office, giving the “maximum possible weight” to “genuine community consultation”.

He dismissed Sadiq Khan’s plan for half of all new homes delivered by private developers to be “genuinely affordable” as a “fantasy target which is impossible to deliver”.