Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Lewisham councils have launched a High Court action against Mayor of London Sadiq Khan over plans to slash affordable housing targets, claiming the city is being turned into an investment asset for the super rich.
Legal challenge details
The Judicial Review claim was filed with the High Court and served on the Greater London Authority. It seeks to stop Khan from reducing the capital's affordable housing quota from 35% to 20%. Seven local authorities are backing the action, with Lambeth, Southwark, Waltham Forest and Haringey councils supporting the challenge.
The councils argue the policy would have a detrimental impact on their ability to deliver affordable housing for residents. London's social housing waiting lists have reached a 10-year high of more than 336,000 families, according to London Councils. The organisation estimates almost 183,000 people, or one in 50 Londoners, are currently homeless.
Mayor's policy under fire
Lutfur Rahman, Executive Mayor of Tower Hamlets, said: "It is a scandal to cut the affordable housing quota when the need for genuinely affordable homes has never been greater. Our city is increasingly being turned into an investment asset for the super rich rather than a place where ordinary Londoners can afford to live, work and raise a family."
Rahman added: "City Hall claims this policy will incentivise developers to build homes more quickly. But homes for whom? If ordinary Londoners can't afford them, they will simply sit empty. Far from accelerating housebuilding, the policy is already slowing it down, with some developers delaying schemes until the quota is cut to 20%."
Housing crisis statistics
In 2020, the number of homes under construction for private sale or rent fell by a third, to around 40,000 today. Just over 3,000 affordable homes were started across London in 2023-24. Rahman noted that one in 20 children in the city is homeless and more than one million Londoners are trapped in overcrowded housing or homes unfit for human habitation due to damp, mould or pests.
When Khan became Mayor in 2016, he stated that more than half of new homes should be affordable, available at 50% to 80% of average market rates. Critics accuse him of watering down that promise.
Council leaders speak out
Zoë Garbett, Executive Mayor of Hackney, said: "My goal is simple: a Hackney our communities can afford to stay in. But with 40% of residents living in deprivation – and local families facing some of the longest waiting times for social housing – we urgently need more affordable social homes."
Garbett added: "Instead we have a Mayor of London doing the opposite – slashing targets, undermining the progress Hackney residents desperately need, and letting developers off the hook. The Mayor of London is no longer surrounded by councils willing to sign off any developer-driven decision he wants to make."
Liam Shrivastava, Executive Mayor of Lewisham, said: "London is in an unprecedented housing crisis, and private developers have a duty to play a role in supporting our city. It would be totally wrong to allow their profit to go unchecked while thousands of people are on councils' housing waiting lists."
Government's position
Housing Secretary Steve Reed and Khan first proposed allowing developers to qualify for fast-track planning approval if they promised 20% affordable homes, rather than the current 35%, last year. The Government argued housebuilding in London was "clearly in crisis" and "35% of nothing was nothing."
