Khan seeks to boost affordable housing in London

London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s new Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) sets out his innovative approach to increasing the levels of affordable housing in the capital.

The guidance means that at least half the new homes built on public land in London will have to be affordable to benefit from faster planning permission, offering developers of private land a fast-track route through the planning process if they meet a strict minimum of 35 per cent affordable housing without public funding.

The SPG follows a £25 million boost from the Mayor’s Office to support new factory-built affordable one and two-bed homes for first-time buyers in the capital. The investment in Pocket Living will see work start on at least 1,059 new homes by March 2021, with a third expected to be built off-site in a factory and dropped into place.

Khan, said: “The housing crisis is the biggest challenge facing Londoners today with too many people – particularly the younger generation - being priced out of our city, unable to afford a home. We've already agreed to put £1.7 billion of the investment that I secured from government into 50,000 new and genuinely affordable homes to rent and buy. This investment will work hand-in-hand with the new approach for developers that I’m introducing today, which will allow them to benefit from a fast track through the planning system if they offer more affordable housing and get building quickly.

“I’m determined to ensure we don’t have a repeat of what happened at Battersea Power Station, with developers unacceptably reducing the number of affordable homes on site after planning permission was granted. That’s why I’ve written to all councils offering City Hall’s expertise in robustly scrutinising applications to ensure we see the new and genuinely affordable homes built that Londoners desperately need.”