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London affordable starts double year on year
The number of affordable homes to be started in London in the first six months of 2019/20 has doubled compared with the same period last year, according to figures released by City Hall.
Work began on 4,874 homes being delivered through Greater London Authority (GLA) programmes up to the end of September this year, and 2,400 were started by the same point in 2018/19.
London mayor Sadiq Khan has agreed a 17,000-home target for the year with government – meaning starts will need to step up by 250% in the second half of 2019/20.
However, City Hall said that Mr Khan remains “on track” to achieve the target.
He met last year’s 14,000 target to achieve the highest number of affordable housing starts since the GLA took control of housing investment in 2012 despite lagging further behind at this point in the calendar.
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Of the affordable homes started so far in 2019/20, 2,763 (57%) are for London Living Rent or shared ownership, and 1,562 (32%) are for social rent or London Affordable Rent.
The GLA’s £1bn Building Council Homes for Londoners programme, allocated in October last year, accounted for 381 starts with most of the rest through the Homes for Londoners programme.
Greenwich, Brent and Croydon had the highest numbers of affordable starts, with work commencing on 650, 643 and 571 units in these boroughs respectively.
Southwark had the most starts for social rent or London Affordable Rent, at 195.
Another 1,123 homes were started for open market sale. Around half of these were through the government’s Home Building Fund, which is being administered by the GLA in London.
Mr Khan has an aim of delivering 113,000 housing starts by March 2022, including 105,000 affordable homes.
He has been handed £4.8bn in funding by the government to meet the aim.
This summer, Mr Khan said that London needs seven times more housing grant that it currently receives to meet the city’s need.
A spokesperson for City Hall said: “Last year the mayor had delivered 17% of his annual target by the end of September, whilst this year that figure stands at 29% of the overall 17,000 target for year.”
