Boris Johnson says ‘social housing targets’ have reduced housebuilding in London

Boris Johnson says ‘social housing targets’ have reduced housebuilding in London

Boris Johnson has been accused of living in “fantasy land” after he blamed affordable housing targets in London for a reduction in housebuilding under mayor Sadiq Khan.

Boris Johnson has been accused of living in “fantasy land” after he blamed affordable housing targets in London for a reduction in housebuilding under mayor Sadiq Khan.

During questions to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) in the House of Commons on Monday, the former prime minister and London mayor said that stopping “good projects” from going ahead deprives people of buying and renting homes, as well as social housing.

However, in a rebuttal on Twitter, deputy mayor for housing and residential development Tom Copley said that Mr. Johnson is in “fantasy land as ever”.

The most recent figures show that 37,200 homes of all tenures were built in London in the last financial year – comfortably dwarfing any year under Mr. Johnson’s eight-year tenure in City Hall.

In 2021, Mr. Khan set a strategic target in the London Plan for half of all new homes built in the capital to be “genuinely affordable”.

He also committed to 35,000 affordable housing starts and a greater proportion of homes for social rent for the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) for 2021-26.

Mr. Johnson made the comments in the context of stopping development in “unsuitable” areas.

He said the best way to do that is to build more on brownfield sites across England.

Mr Johnson said: “Is it therefore not all the more tragic that the current Labour mayor of London housebuilding has gone off a cliff because he remains obsessed with unrealistic targets for social housing in every development, so stopping good projects from going ahead and depriving the people of this city and this country of houses for sale, for market rent, and depriving them of social housing as well.”

In response, Mr. Copley tweeted Greater London Authority (GLA) statistics which showed that the percentage of affordable homes on developments approved by the mayor had doubled.

“Johnson is in fantasy land as ever. Under Sadiq Khan last year the number of new homes in London was up 22% compared to Johnson’s final year.

“At the same time, the [percentage] of affordable homes on developments approved by the Mayor doubled from 22% to 43% thanks to Sadiq’s policies,” he said.

Housing minister Lucy Frazer, who was standing in for Michael Gove in the House of Commons, said “it is of course important that we have social housing”, affordable housing, and homes for first-time buyers.

“But it is important that we have mixed developments, it is important that those houses are in the right places, and in the right quantities,” she said.

The most recent full government figures show that 37,200 homes were built in London in 2021-22. This far exceeds any figure in Mr. Johnson’s eight years in power, during which housebuilding peaked at 32,290 in 2008-09, his first term in office.

A quarterly release – which gives an indication of housebuilding trends but excludes some figures – showed 3,500 starts and 3,270 completions in London in the three months to September 2022.

These figures are lower than the average for this time of year in recent years, but are well below the standard for Mr. Khan’s time in office, indicating they relate to the economy rather than his affordable housing policies.