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Khan gives developer £25m for offsite homes
London mayor Sadiq Khan has handed private developer Pocket Living £25m in funding to deliver factory-built homes.
Pocket, which is known for small, ’compact living’ flats, plans to start at least 1,059 new homes by March 2021, with a third of these constructed offsite.
It builds one and two-bedroom flats sold to first-time buyers living in the same borough as the development at a market discount of at least 20%.
The interest-free loan is intended to help Pocket purchase sites for development and must be paid back in full after 10 years.
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Mr Khan said: “For decades, we have simply not built enough new and affordable homes in the capital, meaning that for too many Londoners the dream of buying their own home is getting further and further out of reach.
“That is why I am working with Pocket Living to build more than a thousand homes for first-time buyers, using the latest offsite construction techniques to provide attractive and affordable homes as quickly as possible.”
The money comes from the mayor’s Innovation Fund, part of the Greater London Authority’s £3.15bn for affordable housing secured from the government last November.
It is not the first time Pocket has received cash from City Hall, with Boris Johnson’s administration handing the developer a £21.7m interest-free loan in 2013.
Marc Vlessing, chief executive of Pocket, said the homes will “help those priced-out and not eligible for social housing to get onto the property ladder”.
He added: “Delivering homes for Londoners means initiatives between the public and private sector are crucial for the capital to thrive in the years ahead.”
Pocket has also received £33.5m in funding from the Homes and Communities Agency’s Home Building Fund.
