Affordable Housing Cover-up By Mayor

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sat 22nd Jun 2002

Despite London's housing crisis, the Mayor has stopped estimating that 28,000 new affordable houses are needed each year and instead refers only to the 11,200 new affordable homes needed to be built annually for the next ten years to clear a backlog of households in housing need.

The press release claims that targets are attainable with higher levels of public subsidy, but mentions only one area of housing need identified by his Housing Commission.

'Homes for a World City', a report by the Mayor's Housing Commission published in November 2000, estimated 31,800 additional homes are needed each year for the next 10 years to meet newly arising demand in London with a further 11,200 required to deal with the backlog of homelessness, overcrowding and poor housing conditions. Of this, the Commission said that 28,000 new affordable homes needed to be provided each year for people on low or moderate incomes.

Liberal Democrat Mike Tuffrey said:

"Yet again, the Mayor has covered up true affordable housing need as estimated by his own Housing Commission to distract from the fact that his planning policies could only, at the most achieve, half that target."

"The Mayor recently claimed the credit for the increase to the housing supply of 20,730 new homes of all tenures, despite this taking place before he took office in 2000.2 Even if he designates that up to 50% of all new housing should be affordable, if only 20,000 homes are being built annually, the Mayor will not bridge the gap."