Look at the figures: as more jobs come to London, the number of homes built lags far behind

I no longer believe London has a housing crisis – this city now faces a full scale housing emergency and action on an unprecedented scale is urgently required.

London has failed to build enough new homes for years with the result that rises in the cost of housing have outstripped rises in incomes. As London’s population has started to grow rapidly the situation has worsened year by year.  Between 2009 and 2014 the number of jobs in London grew by 14 per cent, the number of people by 7.5 per cent and the number of homes by just 4 per cent.

This has real and devastating consequences and is now threatening London’s economic well-being. Last night there will have been more than 50,000 London households in temporary accommodation – and every rise in rent makes it harder for them to find permanent accommodation.

Meanwhile teachers, nurses, doctors and many others who we need to deliver our public services find it impossible to buy homes in London and face rents so high they cannot even afford to save for a deposit.  As a result both public and private sectors are finding it harder and harder to recruit and retain the staff they need.

The London Boroughs have responded – many are building new council housing and developing imaginative schemes to increase the numbers of genuinely affordable new homes.  During our current four year term we expect to see 6,000 new homes built in Lewisham and 1,700 of them will be built directly or enabled by the council.

But London needs to dramatically increase the number of new homes that are delivered each year to around 50,000 – and then sustain that number for the foreseeable future.  This will only be possible if the whole city works together and each borough plays its part.

This housing emergency impacts on every part of London and the response must be genuinely London wide – if we accept that there are parts of London which are to be excused from making a contribution then the burden on the rest will be that much greater and the same is true within each borough.

The London Boroughs have been working together as never before but the city is crying out for leadership to drive a response that will meet the aspirations of ordinary Londoners.

The Government’s response has been the extraordinary Housing and Planning Bill. It could almost have been designed to make things worse not better. The notion that “starter homes” requiring deposits of nearly £100,000 will help any of those people I mentioned earlier is absurd and their construction is likely to actually reduce the number of homes built!

In just a few weeks London will elect a new Mayor and there is only one candidate who both understands the urgency and scale of this city’s housing emergency and has the vision to get London building at a pace never before seen.  That candidate is Sadiq Khan.

A city-wide approach led by a dynamic, activist Mayor bringing together the boroughs, housing associations and private sector can be the catalyst to turn this emergency round.

Of all the challenges that London faces it is this one that poses the gravest threat to its future prosperity – if we fail our city will become further divided and begin to decline but if we succeed we will change the city for years to come.

Londoners have made it clear that they recognise housing as the single most important issue for the next mayor to act on.  Sadiq has set out his plans to do this and they offer the chance to meet the aspiration of Londoners to have a decent, affordable place to live.

Those of us who came to London years ago when the population was declining and it was possible to rent or buy a home and still have enough left at the end of the week to enjoy this great city owe it to today’s young Londoners to do everything in our power to help them get the homes they need so they can play their part in sustaining this great city in the future.

The time for talking will soon be over and we need to elect a mayor who will wake up on Friday 6 May and start acting to bring an end to London’s housing emergency.  Only then will I be able to look those young people in the eye and say “Yes, we are going to fix this.”

Sir Steve Bullock is the Mayor of Lewisham and London Councils’ executive member for housing