Khan reconvenes housing task force

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has reconvened the flagship London Housing Delivery Taskforce to consider the ‘growing’ crisis across London and the UK.

Tom Copley, deputy mayor for housing and residential development, and Councillor Darren Rodwell, executive member for housing and planning at London Councils, met with key figures in the housing sector last week.

The task force comprises leaders from London councils, unions, construction bodies, developers, community groups, industry organisations and housing associations. It has asked the government to ensure that affordable homes continue to be built in London at the pace and scale that is needed.

According to the Construction Products Association’s (CPA) forecast, construction output will fall by 7.0 per cent in 2023 before recovering slowly in 2024 with growth of 0.7 per cent.

Greater London Authority (GLA) planning figures suggest that between April and June 2023, there was a 41 per cent decline in the number of homes on major planning applications referred to the mayor compared with the same period in 2022, and a 53 per cent reduction compared with 2021.

Khan has written to housing secretary Michael Gove, asking for an additional £2.2 billion in affordable housing investment for the capital to help kick-start a slowing housing market. He also warns that developers could be forced to down tools if the government does not provide the funding that is required to revive housing delivery across the country.

The task force will work on further asks of the government during the autumn, including what is needed by both the private and public sectors to sustain delivery.

“Housing has been a top priority of mine since I was elected, and I’ve left no stone unturned in getting London building again,” said Khan. “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 added: “The task force will identify further measures needed to prevent a total collapse of housebuilding in London. Now is the time for bold action from the government – not more platitudes and half measures.”

16 Aug 2023

Laura Edgar, The Planner

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