London’s housing challenges feature heavily in every mayoral candidate’s pledges, as hopefuls in the capital vow reform to solve the crisis.
From rental caps, to a new City Hall developer, to varying preferences for affordable homes and block on high-rise developments, these policies could have big implications for housing and real estate.
EG provides a run-down of the biggest housing promises and policies ahead of the big vote.
Sadiq Khan – Labour
Incumbent mayor Sadiq Khan has put new development and renters firmly at the top of his 2021 agenda.
Khan has promised to expand the £736m London land fund to enable development of “genuinely affordable homes” and vowed to tap public land to deliver more homes.
This includes giving the GLA housing and land team first refusal on all TfL land suitable for development. Khan’s manifesto promises to streamline housing development across the GLA and exploring City Hall backing for a MMC factory or logistics hub in London. He will also pilot a City Hall developer to start building in London.
Khan has reignited his calls for a system of private-sector rent control in the capital, though acknowledged he has no formal power in this area.
He has reiterated his target of 10,000 new council homes, with the majority of homes at social rent. The mayor has also proposed a right to buy back fund, supporting councils to repurchase homes that were previously sold through the right to buy initiative.
Shaun Bailey – Conservative
Khan has called this election a “two-horse race”, with his only real competitor Conservative candidate Shaun Bailey.
Taking note from Westminster, Bailey’s housing promises focus on home ownership and beauty in planning. Bailey has pledged to build 100,000 homes sold for £100,000 each under shared ownership with a deposit of £5,000 targeting first-time buyers in the capital.
Bailey also has plans for a new City Hall developer. Housing for London would be a subsidiary of the GLA controlled by the mayor. He hopes to tap the brownfield land register, which he claims has land for 287,000 homes. Bailey said he will maintain the 35% affordable housing target, and will ensure half of these are designated to key workers.
Bailey wants to put beauty into the London Plan and appoint a chief placemaker to ensure new developments meet requirements. He has also proposed a ban on “inappropriate tower blocks” in outer boroughs and greater power for community land trusts and the right to regenerate. He has proposed all GLA-funded schemes include a right to return for residents of large regenerations, with a portion of GLA funds also ring-fenced for the homeless.
Sian Berry – Green
London Assembly member and co-leader of the Green Party, Sian Berry came third in the 2016 mayoral election.
Berry was behind the move to enable resident ballots for all estate regenerations to receive GLA grant funding. Her 2021 manifesto also backs greater control for communities – giving more residents the power to vote against demolition in new planning policy. She has also proposed a people’s land commission for communities to make their own plans for homes, allowing allowing community land trusts the first option on GLA land that has been earmarked for housing.
She has pledged more support for co-operative and community-led housing and more homes available at a London Living Rent. Berry has also promised to drive down rents, with a new definition for London Living Rents to take into account gaps for households led by women in minority groups. She has also proposed a two-year freeze on rents and a Rent Commission for London to set new targets.
City Hall would also provide a Social Housing Commission, charged with supporting tenants rights. Berry has proposed a new town centre fund financed by business rates paid by large retail developers at planning. A further Green New Deal investment fund would work with councils, pension funds and housing associations to investment in sustainable housing.
Luisa Porritt – Liberal Democrats
A London Housing Company is also top of the list for Liberal Democrat candidate Luisa Porritt. This developer pledges to reshape the housing market by bringing empty homes back into use, maximising use of public land – working with the industry to set best standards.
The party has also jumped on the trend of office-to-resi conversions, hoping to turn empty office space into zero-carbon housing. One of the first tasks of the London Housing Company will be to explore the potential of these conversions.
Porritt has also promised to be a champion for London renters, with a licensing scheme to regulate private landlords in the capital and encourage longer tenancies an end to section 21 no-fault evictions.
She has promised three leaseholder lifelines – with a ban on developers that have failed to take action on building safety defects, a public fire safety register and support line for victims. Porritt proposes a “good developer” accreditation scheme for businesses that engage with local communities.
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