Mayor Misses Reduced Target
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has fallen short of the revised affordable housing target by thousands of homes, a new report has revealed. The Mayor of London was allocated £4 billion from ministers for the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) running between 2021 and 2026. His initial target of starting between 23,900 and 27,200 affordable homes was reduced last year by 22 per cent to a new range of 17,800 to 19,000, following interim reports that indicated slow progress.
However, a new report from the London Assembly Housing Committee suggests the Mayor has failed to meet even this adjusted target, with only 14,335 affordable housing starts delivered under the 2021-2026 AHP. While the March deadline has passed, Homes England announced it would be extended by up to six months on a case-by-case basis.
Completion Rates and Waiting Lists
Other damning figures highlighted in the report include 27 per cent of homes started under the previous 2016-2023 AHP still not being completed – equivalent to 32,081 homes. In 2024-25, the net addition to London’s affordable housing stock was just 8,184, compared to estimations from the Greater London Authority (GLA) that London needs a net 45,500 affordable homes each year between 2026 and 2036 to meet housing need.
Affordable home starts in each borough, 2023-2026 GLA Assembly Member Lord Bailey, Chairman of the Housing Committee said: “Affordable housing delivery is still falling far short of what London needs. Even after targets were revised downwards, they were not met. That reflects the severe challenges facing housebuilding in London, but it also raises important questions about what must change if future programmes are to succeed.”
Benali Hamdache, a Green Party London Assembly Member, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “The data shows that the current model for delivering affordable housing is fundamentally broken. The hope was that building more luxury flats would deliver new council housing. It’s clearly not the case. Since 2015 only 10 per cent of affordable home completions were social rent homes, the type of homes we need the most. Things like shared ownership are not affordable, but represent the most common type of so-called ‘affordable’ housing being delivered. One of the top priorities for the Mayor should be to work with the incoming PM Andy Burnham to address this housing emergency, and start reimagining a new way to deliver housing for people, not profit.”
Silver Linings and Borough Variations
However, there were some silver linings for City Hall figures, who have been adamant that improvements to the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) and an emergency housebuilding package agreed with ministers will see London’s housing crisis start to turn around. Last year, 39 per cent of all completed new build homes were affordable, compared to just 19 per cent in 2016-17. Similarly, 86 per cent of all new homes started were affordable – a sharp increase on the 46 per cent figure eight years prior.
Tower Hamlets is the borough with the most GLA-funded affordable home starts since 2023, the report says, with 1,484 of the 15,715 delivered in the East London authority over the last three years. Four boroughs, however – Chelsea, Harrow, Bexley and Richmond upon Thames – all saw fewer than 60.
Social Housing Waiting Lists
The report claims that there are currently 341,421 households on social housing waiting lists across all London’s boroughs, a quarter of the national total. Newham has the longest list, with 41,223, followed by Brent, Lambeth and Tower Hamlets.
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London told the LDRS: “Tackling our urgent housing crisis is one of the Mayor’s top priorities and he is doing everything he can to deliver more homes of all tenures. Sadiq has been warning for some time that the impact of Brexit, the pandemic, high interest rates and the economic shocks caused by global instability mean that we are amid the most difficult period for housebuilding since the global financial crash. The Mayor is backing housing associations and councils with a record £11.7 billion London Social and Affordable Homes Programme over the next decade. The new City Hall Developer Investment Fund adds £322 million in grants and £1.5 billion in ultra-low-interest loans for housing associations, unblocking stalled sites and speeding up affordable and social housing across the capital. There are new powers for City Hall to review and call-in housing schemes, and stronger powers to deliver Mayoral Development Orders. The Mayor is also delivering 6,000 new rent-controlled homes for key workers. New measures will continue to ramp up housebuilding in London and bring forward thousands of homes more quickly, as we build a better London for everyone.”
