The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan has reconvened his housing taskforce to tackle a “perfect storm of pressures” that could see housebuilding “grind to a halt”.
Announcing the move on Friday, Khan further called on the government to invest as a matter of urgency “to keep our city and our country building”.
The London Housing Delivery Taskforce consists of leaders from London councils, unions, construction bodies, developers, community groups, industry organisations, and housing associations. It was first convened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last week, Khan’s deputy member for housing and residential development, Tom Copley, along with Councillor Darren Rodwell, London Council’s executive member for housing and planning, met with taskforce members to discuss their concerns.
Copley said: “London’s housing sector is facing a crisis the like of which we’ve never seen before.
“Alongside London Councils we’ve reconvened the London Housing Delivery Taskforce … to identify what more needs to be done to protect the industry from the turbulent economic conditions it currently faces, and get London’s housing delivery back on track.
“Ministers need to wake up and realise that every light on the dashboard is flashing red. We need an immediate injection of £2.2bn to steady the ship and get us back on course to deliver 35,000 new genuinely affordable homes.
“The taskforce will identify further measures needed to prevent a total collapse of house building in London. Now is the time for bold action from the government, not more platitudes and half measures.”
Perfect storm
On Friday, the London Mayor said he had written to housing secretary Michael Gove calling for that additional £2.2bn of investment in affordable housing.
City Hall says it is concerned by the likely toll high interest rates and building cost inflation is having on developers and developments alike; reflecting concerns over forecasts of a drop in housebuilding as a result.
Greater London Authority (GLA) says its own data shows that between April and June 2023, there was a 41% decline in the number of homes on major planning applications referred to the mayor, compared to the same period in 2022, and a 53% reduction compared to 2021. This is thought to “reflect market and regulatory uncertainty”, it adds.
There are further concerns over rising costs of building materials hampering developments.
The Mayor of London said: “Housing has been a top priority of mine since I was elected, and I’ve left no stone unturned in getting London building again. 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.”
City Hall says it has stepped up to safeguard the supply of affordable housing and has renegotiated its Affordable Homes Programme 2021-26 with its partners to prevent projects from becoming unviable, despite rising costs.
Cliff edge
Councillor Nesil Caliskan, leader of Enfield Council backed Khan’s call for extra government investment.
“The good progress made is now at severe risk due to the serious implications of market conditions, and this requires the additional investment being called on by the mayor,” he said. ”The housing crisis for Londoners has risen to a new level … Without this investment the situation is set to get worse and councils are powerless to respond.”
Angela Wood, chair of the G15’s development directors group, warned the delivery of new “affordable” homes in the capital is on a “cliff edge”.
“The G15 has skilled teams that are ready and able to deliver the new homes that are desperately needed,” she added. “But rising costs, high interest rates and housing associations’ need to prioritise investment in existing homes means that the supply of new social homes is going to fall.
“With one in 50 Londoners effectively homeless and in temporary accommodation this is a growing housing emergency. More public investment for social housing to complement our own, as part of a package of support, would help to reverse this. It would help us fund more social rented homes and begin to tackle the crisis – lifting people out of poverty, boosting health and wellbeing, creating jobs and driving sustainable economic growth across the country.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, told Housing Digital: “We have delivered more than two million homes in England since 2010, and we are on track to deliver one million new homes in this parliament to create a more sustainable and affordable housing market.
“The levelling up secretary recently announced that the government is launching a deep dive with the Greater London Authority to look at ways to accelerate delivery in the capital. This deep dive will consider how we can increase housing delivery in London whilst maintaining the GLA’s commitment to affordable housing targets.
“We’re also investing £11.5 billion nationally through the Affordable Homes Programme, with £4 billion allocated to the Greater London Authority to deliver much needed affordable housing in the capital.”
Image credit: Bart Lenoir/Shutterstock
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