Johnson moves to reform housing

By Jon Massey on October 24, 2008 1:50 PM |

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London councils will no longer have to force developers to deliver 50 per cent affordable housing when they build in the capital.

Boris Johnson the Mayor of London took the first steps to removing the city-wide target for local authorities this week.

Mr Johnson made the move, one of his manifesto pedges, as he opened negotiations with the councils to agree a programme to deliver 50,000 affordable homes across London over the next three years.

Instead of imposing the existing one size fits all target from City Hall, which Mr Johnson considers particularly unsuitable in the current market, the Greater London Authority will work with each London borough to agree individual targets.

To begin this process the GLA has today written to every London borough proposing an indicative target for affordable housing delivery over the next three years taking into account local housing capacity, recent affordable housing delivery and any existing targets the boroughs have committed to.

Mr Johnson said: “Too many Londoners continue to struggle to get a foot on the housing ladder, and many more are homeless or living in desperately overcrowded or poor quality housing with their families.

“The current policy of imposing an inflexible London wide target clearly does not work and in these exceptionally tough times it is imperative that we make the right investments now to provide the homes that Londoners need.�?