Unless we tackle the housing crisis then the London we know and love will fall apart, and the aspects of London that we don’t like will only get worse. Without decent affordable homes for all – whether that is social rented, key worker housing, affordable private rented homes, or low cost home ownership – then all of our efforts to improve our city and give everyone the chance to succeed in life will be for nothing. Sadiq Khan, Labour’s candidate for Mayor of London, gets this and has set out a plan that is both bold and pragmatic, and that will deliver the homes that Londoners need.
The Conservatives have failed to tackle the housing crisis in London. They made it more difficult for councils to build much-needed social rented homes by cutting the affordable housing grant, and changed the definition of “affordable” to include up to 80 per cent of market rents, which is completely unaffordable for many people in London. The Government’s answer to the housing crisis is to introduce “starter homes” which ostensibly will help people get on the property ladder, but which at a cost of up to £450,000 will fail to help the vast majority of Londoners.
Our planning system is complicated and isn’t widely understood but is crucial to tackling the housing crisis. In Southwark we have already witnessed the damage caused by Boris Johnson as Mayor, when he has “called in” and approved developments with virtually no affordable housing and which had been rejected locally – such as a scheme off the Old Kent Road that had just six per cent affordable housing. Sadiq Khan has committed to working with local authorities to deliver more affordable housing, including supporting councils to enforce clear, new rules to maximise the affordable housing in new developments and the option to set local affordable housing targets. We know our residents locally want the planning system to be more transparent, which is why we have agreed new rules that mean all “viability assessments” for new developments – the details behind how much affordable housing can be delivered – will be made public. This approach is supported in Sadiq’s manifesto, another reason we need a Labour Mayor to open up the planning system to public scrutiny and help us secure as many new affordable homes as possible.
We need a positive and ambitious plan for building the homes that Londoners need. Sadiq Khan understands the importance of a decent home for everyone and he also understands the crucial role the Mayor’s powerful planning tools can play in helping Londoners. Sadiq’s powerful new Homes for Londoners team will put affordable housing at the heart of City Hall, bringing together housing, planning, funding and land powers to build much-needed new homes and to make sure Londoners get a fair deal from developers.
Unless we make housing in our city more affordable then we will lose the people who keep our public services running; our teachers, NHS staff and social workers will be priced out. We will also lose the private sector workers our city needs just as much. Labour councils in London are already taking action to help ordinary Londoners and showing the difference that Labour makes in power. In Southwark we are working with developers to build thousands of new homes of all kinds, and we are building our own new council homes again with the first site already complete in Bermondsey with more well underway across our borough. But the work of Labour councils is being hampered by the Government, whose housing policies will not help Londoners, but will make the situation even worse than it is now and will damage London for a generation or more.
The Labour Party was created to advance the cause and improve the conditions of working people in this country. Today we must carry on that struggle and in London that means tackling the housing crisis head-on. If we fail to do this and condemn Londoners to a Tory Mayor and a Tory Government then we will have failed millions of ordinary Londoners. With less than a month to go before polling day we must, as Labour Party members, do all we can to get Sadiq elected so that he can put our shared principles into practice for the people our party was created to help.
Mark Williams is councillor for Brunswick Park and Cabinet member for regeneration and new homes on Southwark Council
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