This week, Sadiq Khan has been promising radical action to fix London’s housing problems.
But new figures confirm that London’s affordable housing programme, overseen by the Mayor, continues to fall woefully short of targets.
In the year April 2024 to March 2025, a total of 3,661 affordable homes were started under the programme. This is the second lowest total since records began in 2008/9, eclipsed only by last year’s figure of 2,358. This is despite the Mayor receiving £4.1 billion in central government funding for the programme.
This means that with one year to go, the Mayor has delivered only a small fraction of the 23,900 to 27,200 affordable housing starts promised between March 2023 and March 2026.
To make matters worse, some 505 of the 6,019 homes that have been started are existing properties acquired under the Mayor’s Council Homes Acquisition Programme, ie homes that have been bought rather than built.
It comes on top of figures from consultancy Molior that showed overall housebuilding in London had slumped to its lowest level since 2009, with no starts at all in 23 out of London’s 33 boroughs.
Robert Colvile, Director of the Centre for Policy Studies, said:
“Sadiq Khan talks a good game on housing. But the tragedy for London is that it is just that – talk.
“The Mayor boasted repeatedly about hitting his last target for affordable housing, in 2023. But as I and others warned, this was accomplished both by pulling forward projects from future years and an accounting trick that meant that if 2,000 homes were being demolished, and 2,200 new ones constructed, over a decade, the Mayor counted it as 2,200 new homes immediately.
“There are obviously headwinds facing the sector. But London’s housing crisis is a national emergency, and national scandal. The Mayor needs to stop boasting, and start building.”
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
- Robert Colvile is Director at the Centre for Policy Studies
- For further information and media requests, please contact Emma Revell on 07931 698246 and [email protected] or Melisa Tourt on 07399 251110 and [email protected]
- The Centre for Policy Studies is one of the oldest and most influential think tanks in Westminster. With a focus on taxation, economic growth, housing, immigration, and energy abundance, its goal is to develop policies that widen enterprise, ownership and opportunity.
Date Added: Wednesday 14th May 2025
