The Mayor has warned the requirement for 35 per cent of new homes to be affordable has brought housebuilding in the capital to a standstill.
New build home rule in England could be scrapped in ‘next few weeks’
“Nothing is off the table” as Sadiq Khan considers slashing a 35 per cent affordable homes rule for new builds. The Labour Party London Mayor has warned the requirement for 35 per cent of new homes to be affordable has brought housebuilding in the capital to a standstill.
Khan says “nothing is off the table” as he considers whether to reduce the amount of affordable housing that developers have to build in London. One senior industry source told The Standard that the final figure could be below 20 per cent.
“Sadiq wants to be made to do it by central Government to give him political cover,” the source said. Sir Sadiq hopes that a new system will be announced in the “next few weeks”.
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Sir Sadiq added: “What I have said to the Government is: let’s have a frank conversation about what we can do. I’ll go into those conversations with an attitude of ‘nothing is off the table’.”
“It’s really important that we understand our city faces a housing crisis. That includes the fact there is an affordability crisis. Londoners have been priced out of our city for too long. We have got to increase the supply of housing in London to meet the demand.
“We have broken records in terms of homes completed, and numbers of council homes being built. At the same time, we have got to recognise that across the country, housing starts have fallen off a cliff.
“In London, what I want to do is get a bespoke agreement with the Government. That could be freeing up regulation, changing rules in relation to planning to try to kick-start housebuilding in London. It’s really important that we do that.”
“Roughly speaking, 94 per cent of new homes in London are flats, but we know we have more than double the amount of high-rise buildings than the rest of the country put together,” he said.
“What I’m speaking to the Government about, after listening to developers and others, is: is it possible, in these exceptional circumstances, to try to turbo-charge housebuilding in London?
“Those conversations are ongoing, and hopefully over the course of the next few weeks I’m hoping to come to an agreement with the Government about what we can do to kick-start housebuilding in London.”