City Hall Conservatives call for end to affordable housing targets to boost supply

City Hall Conservatives urge London to get radical with housebuilding after the capital is building the fewest homes of any English region per capita.

A report by City Hall Conservative member Lord Bailey reveals London is on track for fewer than 5,000 private construction starts in the whole of 2025.

The Get London Building report lists a number of recommendations to tackle London’s housing crisis, including abolishing affordable housing targets.

Harder for buyers to get on the housing ladder

According to the report, housing starts are down by 73% in London over the past year, and by 2027/28 just 6% of the homes the government says London needs are forecast to be built.

One of the recommendations in the report includes fast-tracking the building of at least 75,000 homes on land that the Mayor, the Greater London Authority (GLA), and Transport for London (TfL) already own, starting with more than 10,000 homes and new infrastructure at the Royal Docks in Newham, on land already owned by City Hall.

The London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s original 35% affordable housing target was slashed to 20% last week after the original targets had stifled developers and hit overall housing supply.

However, City Hall Conservatives want to abolish targets for ‘affordable’ housing altogether to build more homes.

The report says: “Affordable housing targets for this kind of housing, which most Londoners subsidise through their taxes but will never be eligible for, render developments unviable and stop homes from being built, making it harder for buyers to get on the housing ladder.”

We have a housebuilding crisis

Lord Bailey said: “We have had a housing crisis in London for many years, but what we have now is a housebuilding crisis as well. We cannot go on like this. Letting this crisis deepen further is a choice. We do not have to make it. We can make London a far more attractive and prosperous city by getting serious about building.

“Nobody benefits from this current crisis, whether you are a private renter spending half your salary on rent, whether you are looking for a buyer for your home but can’t find one because so few young people can get a mortgage, or whether you are on a social housing waiting list. Everybody loses.

“Having been a youth worker for 30 years and having been homeless myself, I know first-hand everything else in life comes back to having a home of your own.”

The report also recommends that rental payment history should routinely be used within a mortgage application and should be included in the overall credit scores.

The report also says in the upcoming Autumn Budget, the Labour government should introduce a tax relief system for developers proportionate to the number of homes built and abolish stamp duty land tax for primary residences.