The first 10 months of the new Labour Government has effectively been a \u201cyear that we\u2019ve lost\u201d for housebuilding in the capital, the chair of Parliament\u2019s housing select committee has lamented.<\/p>\n
In comments to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Florence Eshalomi said the fact that most London boroughs saw no new homes start construction in the first months of this year was \u201creally shocking\u201d and that \u201cnowhere near enough\u201d properties are being built nationally.<\/p>\n
The Labour MP also claimed that Housing Secretary Angela Rayner\u2019s refusal to say how many of the Government\u2019s promised 1.5m homes will be social-rented homes is because the Government is afraid of giving critics \u201ca stick to beat them with\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ms Rayner has said providing a national target for new social housing units is not feasible, arguing that it \u201cdepends on the affordability and viability of sites depending on how big they are\u201d \u2013 though she promises the Government will deliver \u201cthe biggest amount of affordable and social housing for a generation\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ms Eshalomi, who represents Vauxhall and Camberwell Green, pointed to a recent report in The Times which said the building of new homes in London \u2013 of all types \u2013 has plunged to a 16-year low. Figures compiled by residential development consultant Molior and shared with the newspaper show that 23 of London\u2019s 33 boroughs recorded zero new housing starts in the first quarter of 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re almost a year into the new Government, since July \u2013 that\u2019s a year we\u2019ve lost,\u201d the MP said.<\/p>\n
Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan said in March he was the \u201cfirst to admit supply has not met demand, and we have got to do better, and we\u2019re going to do better with the support of national Government, councils, but also with some foreign investment\u201d.<\/p>\n
The most recent data for \u2018net additional dwellings\u2019 in England \u2013 which takes account of buildings being demolished or converted into flats, as well as conventional house-building \u2013 covers the 2023\/24 financial year, when Rishi Sunak was still in Downing Street. It shows that only 221,071 new homes were created in net terms, down 5.6 per cent on the previous year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s nowhere near enough,\u201d Ms Eshalomi said. \u201cSo I want to use my role to push Angela Rayner and [housing minister] Matthew Pennycook on what is going on.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the sector is showing that there are some key issues \u2013 capacity within the sector, the tradesmen, the workforce \u2013 all those issues. I hope some of that will be addressed within the National Planning Policy Framework, so let\u2019s wait and see what comes back to Parliament.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked why she thought the Government was reluctant to say how many social properties it intends to create as part of its pledged 1.5m homes, she said: \u201cIf you put a figure down and then you don\u2019t meet that, that\u2019s a stick to beat you with.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think it\u2019s about us being ambitious, it\u2019s about us getting people to work towards something. It\u2019s about having a goal and an endgame \u2013 what are the outputs that we want to see?\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cIt\u2019s about recognising that [with] those homes, it\u2019s not just about the targets, it\u2019s about the people who are going to live in those homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think for far too long we think of the abstract, of just numbers. Let\u2019s think about the people, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m keen to do as chair of the select committee \u2013 bring it back to why we are building these homes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Eshalomi was speaking to reporters at the Centre for London think tank\u2019s annual housing summit. She was joined at the event by David Simmonds, the Conservatives\u2019 shadow housing minister, who admitted that despite \u201csome successes\u201d in housing policy under the previous Government, \u201cthe overall level of total demand for housing is still comfortably outstripping\u201d supply.<\/p>\n
Mr Simmonds, MP for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, pointed out that London also faces the problem of some homes being under-occupied, for example when an older person lives alone in a home with several bedrooms.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you create a housing market in which people feel willing, able, incentivised, to free up space that they don\u2019t need, so that those who are in housing need can make use of that?\u201d, he said, suggesting this was a question the new Government needed to address.<\/p>\n
Regarding Labour\u2019s plans to re-classify \u2018poor quality\u2019 areas of protected green belt land as \u2018grey belt\u2019, for housebuilding, he said: \u201cFor London it\u2019s a big issue, because around London, you have a lot of green belt\u2026 and that is environmentally important. It\u2019s important for wildlife. A lot of it is agricultural land, which is important for the life of the capital itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big concern that I and my party have about the changes to the green belt is the risk that it becomes a developers\u2019 charter for high-value, executive homes in the London suburbs, when actually what we need to think about is how we meet a much broader level of housing need.\u201d<\/p>\n
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