Londoners need us to come together to avert this disaster

What do Londoners need? They need a solution to the housing crisis. But instead, they are getting a package of policies from this Tory government that is likely to make the housing crisis many times worse,  drive up the costs of failure and rip communities apart. Londoners need us to come together, to stop this from happening.

London is a phenomenal generator of wealth, symbolised by a skyline full of cranes, gleaming office blocks and riverside apartments. But this masks a different reality for millions of Londoners.

Many are locked out of that prosperity, caught in a trap of poverty and dependency that doesn’t reflect our values as a city or as a nation. It means the opportunity that London offered my parents and me is out of reach of many people who live here.

When my parents came here in the 1960s to make a better life for themselves and their family, it was the modest rent of a council flat that helped make their dreams a reality. My dad worked hard as a bus driver and they saved up enough to move from the flat to buy a home of their own. Now millions rely on Housing Benefit to cover escalating private rents and top up low pay, with little chance of earning enough to pay their own way.

That is something as Mayor I would work with all Londoners to tackle. But this problem is in danger of getting worse, because of a toxic combination of policies from this Tory government that many Tories, as well as the CBI and the former top civil servant Lord Kerslake, are concerned about.

The government’s plans to sell off housing association properties without building more and to place a cap on benefits in London that pushes Londoners out of the city will have consequences for all parts of the capital, and beyond. London already has a housing crisis: this package of policies will only make it far worse.

I understand why the benefit cap appeals. It is clearly a failure of government policy if people are better off out of work. And because of the high costs of housing in London, some families have received more in benefits than the average income of a working family. But this is about practicality. Reducing the cap further in London will only make the housing crisis many times worse.

The only way we can solve it is by tackling the root causes that leave people reliant on hand-outs from the state just to make ends meet. That means we should stop using housing benefits to line the pockets of private landlords; instead we must build more affordable and social homes and set fair rents. It means we can’t keep subsidising poverty pay; but instead have more people getting a living wage. And we must always ensure that there’s a safety net for vulnerable people who need it most.

Saturday’s Guardian revealed a government report showing 40,000 children could be pushed below the poverty line by a further reduction in the benefit cap. Thousands of these children will undoubtedly be in London. That prospect fills me with horror.

As it stands, in my surgeries in Tooting I see families being rehoused out of London, forcing children to leave school, tearing up links built up in community, moved to a city or area where they know no one and if working locally having to give up their job. Or they decide to get cheaper private accommodation with fewer rooms and chronic overcrowding to stay in the area.

This problem won’t only affect zones 1 and 2 – it’ll ripple out and touch all parts of London, as people including nurses and teachers forced out of the centre seek cheaper places to live. Many will settle on the outer London boroughs where families in London’s suburbs are already struggling to find decent and affordable homes.

An influx of people from central London is going to make this housing shortage even more acute. But many more will simply be pushed out of London altogether – into Essex, Kent and to seaside towns along the south coast, and even further afield into the midlands and the north. In short, this policy will simply displace the problem and the cost to the taxpayer, not solve it.

But it also raises a fundamental issue of what kind of city we want London to be. Do we want it to be the preserve of the wealthy alone, or do we want it to be an inclusive city where everyone has the potential to thrive? One of the things I love most about London is its a place where people from all walks of life live side by side. We notice when our neighbours are struggling and our communities are changing and it affects us all – not just those at the very top and the very bottom.

I know that many others across the city share my concern and that this transcends party politics. So today I’m reaching out. I will work with anyone – politicians from any party, businesses or community groups – to protect Londoners from the impact of these policies. We have to act together to tackle our housing crisis, not make it worse.

Sadiq Khan MP for Tooting is standing to be Labour’s candidate for London Mayor