London Mayor warns housing goal at risk without additional government funds

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has stated that he will be unable to achieve his most recent affordable housing objective for the capital without further governmental assistance. He informed the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he has “a number of asks” for the Labour government to improve the situation, including “additional support financially, in relation to affordable housing”. When questioned if more aid was still necessary to meet his March 2026 target, Mr Khan confirmed: “Yes.” The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government responded by stating it “will work in partnership with the mayor of London to tackle the housing crisis and deliver the homes that London needs”. The mayor informed the Local Democracy Reporting Service that London’s housebuilding sector is being impacted by a “perfect storm”, listing factors such as “low growth, high interest rates, the cost of materials to build homes, the consequences of a hard Brexit, the shortage of workers, the lack of funding from the previous government”. Mr Khan noted that “The amount of grant we would be giving to a council or a registered social landlord, to build an affordable home, is now much higher than it used to be.” He added that achieving “It’s going to be challenging, in relation to the target we’ve got with the government. We’re going to make sure we do everything we can to get these affordable homes built.” Among his requests to the government, the mayor specified support for a City Hall developer fund. He stated, “We think £1bn, roughly speaking, can lead to the construction of 16,500 homes – around half of them by 2027,” and also expressed a desire for the government to “give councils the ability to borrow to build”. Mr Khan’s appeal for additional funding follows Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ allocation of an extra £100m to the affordable housing fund in her recent Budget, which occurred weeks prior. This increase raises the total funding for the initiative to £4.1bn, a sum that includes £4bn provided by the preceding Conservative government. Under the previous administration, the mayor was initially tasked with commencing work on 35,000 affordable homes by the conclusion of the programme. However, this target was reduced last year to a range between 23,900 and 27,200 homes, following a “re-profiling” exercise prompted by rising costs. Despite being one-third of the way through the available timeframe since receiving funding in July 2023, City Hall has, to date, initiated only 2,124 homes. This means it has achieved less than a tenth of the lower threshold of the already-revised target. Between July and September of this year, construction began on fewer than 200 properties, representing only a slight increase from the 150 started in the preceding three months. City Hall Conservatives commented that if the mayor maintains his current pace, he would exceed the deadline by more than 30 years to meet the target. A spokesperson for the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government affirmed: “We know that we must radically boost housebuilding in the capital.“That is why we will work in partnership with the mayor of London to tackle the housing crisis and deliver the homes that London needs.”