Mayor of London convenes Housing Taskforce

The Mayor of London has convened a Housing Taskforce to discuss the growing housing crisis across London and the UK.

Recent data from City Hall has shown a 41 per cent year-on-year drop in major planning applications referred to the Mayor. National forecasts are also predicting that housebuilding could fall to the lowest level since World War II.

The mayor met with Tom Copley deputy mayor for housing and residential development and Councillor Darren Rodwell, executive member for housing and planning at London Councils as well as other key figures in the sector as part of the reconvened London Housing Delivery Taskforce.

Khan has also written to Michael Gove, secretary of state of housing, calling for an additional £2.2bn in affordable housing investment to help kickstart a slowing housing market.

Khan said: “Housing has been a top priority of mine since I was elected, and I’ve left no stone unturned in getting London building again. In recent years, more homes have been completed in the capital than at any time since the 1930s, genuinely affordable homebuilding has hit the highest level since records began, and we’ve started work on more new council homes than at any time since the 1970s.

“But with spiralling costs, the housing sector is increasingly facing a perfect storm of pressures. The national housing crisis is not just piling pain on households, but it’s threatening future housebuilding too. The Government cannot afford to sit around any longer. We need urgent investment from the Government to keep our city and our country building.

 “If not, Government inaction is seriously risking housebuilding grinding to a halt across the country and putting a stranglehold on the progress we’ve made in London.”

Copley said: “London’s housing sector is facing a crisis the like of which we’ve never seen before. Alongside London Councils we’ve reconvened the London Housing Delivery Taskforce, which brings together leaders from across London’s housing sector, to identify what more needs to be done to protect the industry from the turbulent economic conditions it currently faces and get London’s housing delivery back on track.  

“Ministers need to wake up and realise that every light on the dashboard is flashing red. We need an immediate injection of £2.2 billion to steady the ship and get us back on course to deliver 35,000 new genuinely affordable homes. The taskforce will identify further measures needed to prevent a total collapse of house building in London. Now is the time for bold action from the Government, not more platitudes and half measures.”

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