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Khan commissions review into increasing GLA housing delivery
London mayor Sadiq Khan has commissioned an independent review to examine how City Hall can use its agencies to “improve and streamline” housing development in the capital.
Lord Bob Kerslake has been appointed to lead the review, tasked with finding ways for the Greater London Authority (GLA) Group to deliver more affordable housing.
The review will start immediately, with a final report expected in early 2022.
Mr Khan has a target agreed with government to oversee 79,000 starts of affordable homes between 2021 and 2026, tied to £4bn in grant funding.
In August, the mayor allocated £3.46bn from the programme, with the winning bids expected to deliver just shy of 29,500 homes.
Inside Housing asked the GLA how it intends to meet the remaining 50,000 homes in the target with the £540m left over.
In response, a spokesperson said the 79,000-home target “recognises the scale of delivery that the mayor will support” but that the grant programmes “are entirely separate, with different targets and funding for each”.
They added that the remaining £540m “is required for a small proportion of the 2021-2026 starts that will remain”.
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The GLA Group includes Transport for London, the London Fire Commissioner, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime and two development corporations.
Lord Kerslake’s review will identify how many homes have been delivered through various routes so far and make recommendations to the mayor about how the group can work together more effectively.
It will also examine approaches to establish a new City Hall-owned developer, as promised by Mr Khan in his re-election manifesto.
Ways to maximise affordable housing delivered on GLA Group land will also be considered.
Mr Khan said: “I’m doing all I can to tackle the housing crisis in the capital, and am proud to have achieved record-breaking delivery of genuinely affordable homes during my first term as mayor, including working with boroughs to start more new council homes than in any year since 1983.
“I’m determined to build on this success to deliver more homes for Londoners. I can think of no-one more qualified than Lord Kerslake to lead this review into how the GLA Group can strengthen its focus on delivering more genuinely affordable homes.
“I’m grateful to him for agreeing to bring the benefit of his passion and expertise to this subject.”
In 2019/20, 17,000 starts were made through Mr Khan’s affordable homes programme, the highest number since the GLA was given control over the funding in 2012.
Lord Kerslake is a crossbench peer and former head of the civil service who led the Homes and Communities Agency (now Homes England) and the Department for Communities and Local Government (now the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) between 2008 and 2015.
He is also the chair of Peabody, the large London housing association.
Lord Kerslake said: “London urgently needs more genuinely affordable homes and I am delighted to be asked to lead this review into how the GLA’s own arrangements might be streamlined and strengthened.”
Update: at 12.39pm, 14/10/2021
A response from the GLA was added to the story
