According to City Hall data, 3,690 council houses were completed in 2024\/25. While it represented the highest figure since 2018\/19, it doesn\u2019t bode well for the aim of 40,000 new council homes between 2024 and 2028.<\/p>\n
Jamilla Hinds-Brough, the Mayoral Head of Delivery at the GLA, insisted the Mayor was \u201cconfident that this target is on track to be delivered\u201d but admitted the \u201cconditions for housebuilding in London are incredibly difficult\u201d.<\/p>\n
Last week Deputy Mayor for Housing Tom Copley took aim at the Building Safety Regulator as a key factor in the delay in new affordable housing.<\/p>\n
Unblock affordable housebuilding by creating new Land Assembly Zones (LAZs) and Mayoral Development Corporations (MDCs)
Seen as a way to help fix London\u2019s housing crisis by making development easier, the Mayor has moved forward with plans to set up a Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC) by January 1, 2026 to enable him to regenerate Oxford Street. He has yet to officially implement a Land Assembly Zone (LAZ).<\/p>\n
Mr Watts suggested that the former is a \u201cvery powerful tool but they are also expensive\u201d, meaning that City Hall is taking a precaution-led approach when looking to set up one.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis work is motoring on alongside government at the moment and we are making some progress,\u201d he added. \u201cGiven the scale of London\u2019s housing crisis, there will be areas that these kind of powers will be useful \u2013 but I will not foreshadow anything as we work through it with government. A lot of this also comes down to wider government investment.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are currently two MDCs within London, both set up by former Mayors. One is for Old Oak Common to allow the HS2 station site to be developed, while the other is for the Olympic Park area in Stratford, set up to allow the area\u2019s transformation.<\/p>\n
End Rough Sleeping by 2030<\/strong><\/p>\n The number of rough sleepers on London\u2019s streets between April 2024 and March 2025 was 3,028, according to the Combined Homelessness and Information Network \u2013 up 27 per cent on the previous year.<\/p>\n Asked if the Mayor was still on track to hit this pledge, Ms Hinds-Brough admitted that \u201cending rough sleeping isn\u2019t something we can do from City Hall\u201d and that work was needed \u201cacross all tiers of government\u201d.<\/p>\n In May, Sir Sadiq launched his Rough Sleeping Plan of Action, vowing to end the \u201ctrauma\u201d of people who have to be sleeping on the streets before they can access support. Success would be seeing no individual repeatedly coming back to the streets after accessing services provided by councils. There seems a long way to go with this one.<\/p>\n With the Met announcing cuts across the board \u2013 including the controversial proposal to shut 18 of London\u2019s 37 accessible police station front counters \u2013 the Mayor\u2019s team admitted that putting extra officers on the streets could prove difficult.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s too early to know whether we\u2019re going to hit this,\u201d Mr Watts told the London Assembly, as officials were told the number of officers has reduced by 1,400 since May 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat you are right to identify is that the current financial settlement for the Met isn\u2019t sufficient. The Mayor is continuing to do whatever he can to put extra resources into the police. This is one of the more challenging ones anyway. We continue to strongly lobby for the funding we need.\u201d<\/p>\n He suggested the move to shut front counters could free up officers currently \u201ctied up behind desks\u201d to operate in neighbourhood policing teams. However, Assembly Members said that would breach another promise in the manifesto \u2013 maintaining a 24\/7 police counter in every borough of London.<\/p>\n Liberal Democrat Assembly Member Gareth Roberts told the LDRS: \u201cWe heard from his own senior aide that the promise was never even tested to see if it was deliverable, and now it won\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Mayor has known for months that police front counters were on the chopping block, but has said nothing about it, preferring conversations behind closed doors and refusing to admit his U-turn.\u201d<\/p>\n Deliver a 100 per cent zero-emission bus fleet by 2030 and air pollution filters in primary schools<\/strong><\/p>\n Ms Hinds-Brough said that the ability to fund the electrification of London\u2019s buses will depend on TFL\u2019s business planning proposals this year, which will \u201cdetermine our ability to meet the target\u201d.<\/p>\n Mr Watts said that without any action, a 100 per cent zero-emission fleet will naturally be achieved by 2034 as buses go out of service and are naturally replaced. He said the Mayor was keen to be proactive and push TfL to bring the target forward.<\/p>\n Brent and Harrow Assembly Member Krupesh Hirani noted that the 28 bus, which was originally an electric vehicle, is now diesel powered \u2013 though he was told that happens when bus operators are replaced on short notice and operate with whatever fleet they have.<\/p>\n Officials also said that the air pollution filter rollout was underway \u2013 eight have been installed, with another 55 by the end of October, and 200 by Spring 2026 as part of a pilot scheme. This looks like one that\u2019s largely on course to be achieved.<\/p>\n Get to 40,000 electric vehicle charging points in London<\/strong><\/p>\n Officials said progress is \u201con track\u201d to achieve this, and there are around 26,000 charging points in the capitals for electric vehicle use.<\/p>\n Freeze TfL fares until at least 2025 and for as long as economic conditions allow<\/strong><\/p>\n Tube and train fares in London rose by 4.6 per cent in March after ministers ordered the Mayor to increase ticket prices in line with the national rail network, so this one effectively fell at the first hurdle.<\/p>\n Sir Sadiq has reportedly been told by the government to hike commuter costs by the RPI rate of inflation \u2013 currently 4.3 per cent \u2013 plus one per cent in each of 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029.<\/p>\n Officials were unable to say whether this would be a standard requirement going forward, suggesting that the Mayor will make his decision on fare rates on an annual basis at the usual time.<\/p>\n Following the meeting, Tory Assembly Member Neil Garratt told the LDRS: \u201cAs Mayor Khan enters his last years in office, his past promises are catching up with him. He promised 1,300 extra police at last year\u2019s election, but he\u2019s actually cut 1,400. He promised 3,000 affordable houses per year, last year he managed about 500.<\/p>\n \u201cHis Net Zero plan calls for 2.2 million homes converted to a heat pump in five years, but it\u2019ll take an absurd 1,700 years at the speed it\u2019s going.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he\u2019s challenged, everything is someone else\u2019s fault but as a Mayor nearly 10 years in office, who else is to blame for the promises he\u2019s made and his failure to achieve them? Londoners deserve better.\u201d<\/p>\n \ud83d\udce9 Get the latest breaking news, roadworks, crime updates and local events straight to your inbox \u2013 totally free, every day.<\/p>\n SIGN UP below<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mayor of London is on track to deliver the \u201cvast majority\u201d of his 146 manifesto commitments by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,7833,257,7834,25229,12,1264,183,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-437663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-harrow-online","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-london-news","14":"tag-mayor-of-london","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-tfl","17":"tag-travel","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115234626982599982","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Mayor](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0-2-8-scaled.jpg\" "\\"Mayor")
The new electric 358 bus shown charging at Crystal Palace bus station. Permission for use by all LDRS partners. Credit: Transport for London.
\nWork with a Labour government to put an extra 1,300 neighbourhood police officers and PCSOs on the streets<\/strong><\/p>\n
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\n ![\"Mayor](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Untitled-design-1-e1749297433790.png\" "\\"Mayor")
<\/p>\n