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GLA housing committee demands Khan releases reports
Members of the Greater London Authority’s (GLA) housing committee have demanded that the mayor releases housing need documents.
At a meeting of the committee, members grilled James Murray, deputy mayor for housing, over the mayor’s failure to release his Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) or the Good Practice Guide to Estate Regeneration, which was due in the summer.
Sadiq Khan has already quoted various figures from the SHMA in a bid ahead of the Budget to get £1bn extra funding for affordable housing from the government. He said the figures show that 66,000 new homes are needed every year, of which 65% need to be below market rate.
The complete figures, however, are not scheduled to be released until the end of the month, alongside the upcoming draft London Plan. This would leave only a week between the release of this information and the deadline for responses to be submitted to the draft version of the mayor’s housing strategy.
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The mayor’s Good Practice Guide to Estate Regeneration has also been delayed. Mr Murray told Inside Housing last week that the fire at Grenfell Tower was the cause of the delay as it raised further issues that needed to be addressed.
Members of the committee argued that they should be able to assess the housing strategy, the SHMA and the estate regeneration guide together.
Sian Berry, chair of the housing committee and a London Assembly member for the Green Party, told Mr Murray: “If we’re going to assess whether the housing strategy works, we’re going to need to know what the need is at the point at which we look at the housing strategy.”
Andrew Boff, a Conservative assembly member, added: “You’ve already put summaries in the public domain, therefore it exists in some form. Why haven’t we seen this?”
Mr Murray responded: “I’m perfectly happy to go back and check with planning colleagues to get an update for you on when that will be published.”
In the same session, the deputy mayor revealed that the mayor’s office has already identified land that it will seek to buy with its new £250m land-buying fund, but that he could not discuss locations due to commercial sensitivity.
