London affordable housing target cut following fall in starts

The cut came days after a report by the G15 revealed that London’s largest housing associations had seen their starts drop by 66% since 2022-23, with the group calling for urgent action on the capital’s “deepening” housing crisis.

The precipitous fall in London starts, which has dragged down national figures, has been blamed on a number of factors. These include post-2010 grant cuts, which led to a sharp drop in social rent homes, the cost of development, building safety and stock improvement works, and the lack of a long-term rent settlement. 

The G15 has called for a 10-year settlement, a rent convergence mechanism and full access to the Building Safety Fund for housing associations. 

Responding to the target cut, Tom Copley, deputy London mayor for housing and residential development, said: “The horrendous legacy of the last government – including a lack of national funding, high interest rates, spiralling building costs, delays from bodies like the Building Safety Regulator and the lasting impact of Brexit – has made it harder and more expensive to build homes, with Londoners suffering the consequences.

“The decision to adjust our Affordable Homes Programme 2021-2026 targets will enable us to support partners to build at scale and deliver the maximum number of social and affordable homes in this programme.”

He pointed to the GLA’s completions record – more than 10,000 for the past four years, with social rented completions rising to 6,681 for 2024-25, the highest for a decade – and said the year-on-year rise in starts is evidence of “green shoots of growth”.

“The mayor is taking the hard decisions to improve housing supply of all tenures,” Mr Copley said.

“He is actively exploring releasing parts of London’s green belt for development and is working closely with the government to resolve issues like delays from the Building Safety Regulator.”

Commenting on the latest figures released this week, the Centre for Policy Studies thinktank criticised mayor Sadiq Khan for “falling woefully short” on affordable housing targets. It said the statistics included 505 homes that had been “bought rather than built” under the GLA’s council homes acquisition programme. 

Robert Colvile, director of the Centre for Policy Studies, said Mr Khan “talks a good game on housing, but the tragedy for London is that it is just that – talk”.

Mr Colville added: “The mayor boasted repeatedly about hitting his last target for affordable housing in 2023. 

“But as I and others warned, this was accomplished both by pulling forward projects from future years and an accounting trick that meant that if 2,000 homes were being demolished and 2,200 new ones constructed over a decade, the mayor counted it as 2,200 new homes immediately.

“There are obviously headwinds facing the sector. But London’s housing crisis is a national emergency, and national scandal – the mayor needs to stop boasting and start building.”

An MHCLG spokesperson said: “We are determined to deliver the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation, but we cannot do this without London being ambitious in its approach. 

“The [national] Affordable Homes Programme is on track to meet its targets, and this is backed by an £800m top up for this year alongside a £2bn down payment on further funding.

“The mayor last week put forward a bold proposal to tackle the capital’s housing crisis [by releasing green belt land] and we expect him to take all possible steps to build thousands more affordable homes that Londoners desperately need.”