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Sadiq Khan under fresh fire over affordable housing starts
The mayor of London Sadiq Khan has been forced into a renewed defence of his affordable housing record after fresh allegations from the Conservatives of ‘double counting’ on starts.
During Mayor’s Question Time at City Hall today, Andrew Boff, Conservative London Assembly member and part of the London Assembly’s Housing Committee, pointed to the fact that Mr Khan’s office had revealed that 1,256 affordable homes started in the 2017/18 financial year were restarts.
The mayor’s office had reported a total of 12,526 affordable homes were started in the capital in that time period, which is the lower end of Mr Khan’s target of delivering between 12,500 and 16,500 affordable homes in the year.
However, Mr Boff said it would have been “more honest” for the mayor to report a starts figure of 11,000.
Mr Boff, who failed last year in his attempt to be the Conservatives’ next London mayoral candidate, added: “Do you think when you next declare figures you can do so without fiddling those figures to make it look more?”
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Mr Khan replied: “This is a very serious allegation made against officers that work so hard in this building. I would ask the chair for that remark to be removed because he is basically criticising officers who can’t defend themselves and he should be ashamed of himself.”
The exchange today is the latest in a long-running row over Mr Khan’s record on affordable housing. Mr Boff also accused Mr Khan last summer of double-counting on starts.
The mayor is aiming to build 113,000 new homes by March 2022, with 105,000 of those affordable.
In a response following the session, James Murray, deputy mayor for housing and residential development, said: “This is the latest desperate attempt to distract attention away from the record-breaking number of affordable homes started under Sadiq.
“As Assembly members know, there is no double-counting in these figures. They use the exact same definition of a start that was used under Boris Johnson, and that is recognised by the government.”
The mayor’s office claims that under previous mayor Mr Johnson, housing starts that were going to fail to meet their contractual obligations had to be re-started on Mr Khan’s watch. It said that these starts were removed from previous statistics to avoid double counting.
