London’s mayoral hopefuls clashed over affordable housing and overseas investment during the LandAid Debate 2016 – London’s Mayoral Candidate’s Visions for Housing.
Sadiq Khan said he would “stand up to developers” who market homes to foreign investors before Londoners.
The Labour candidate said he would amend the London Plan so that developers were required to market properties to Londoners first for a certain period of time. He said: “It’s got to be first dibs for Londoners.”
Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith said he “would not want to turn the taps off on international investment”.
However, he said he would amend the existing development concordant to extend the time new homes had to be marketed to Londoners from the existing three-month time limit. He also said developments built on public land would be marketed to Londoners first.
All candidates agreed on a target to deliver 50,000 homes a year but were unable to set a time scale for how soon they would reach that target once elected.
In what may have been an effort to win over the property professionals in the room, Khan stressed that he was keen to work with business to bring forward more homes in London.
“You need a plan at City Hall with a team of experts doing what we say on the tin, working with councils and developers making sure there are genuinely affordable homes built in London,” he said.
Goldsmith said he would use the brownfield land as the centrepiece of his housing policy, and that alongside this he would unlock TfL’s budget to make more land accessible for development.
He said that his “track record” of working with central government and challenging it where necessary was his unique selling point.
“There is a lot of brownfield land. If we can persuade the government to release that land, then we can close the gap between supply and demand,” he said.
In what turned into an occasionally personal debate, Goldsmith attacked Khan on his inability to talk to central government, drawing light applause from the room.
Khan, meanwhile, accused Goldsmith of his support for central government policies, questioning the affordability of the £450,000 price of an average starter home.
Outside the main Tory-Labour argument, Liberal Democrat candidate Caroline Pidgeon said she would introduce a housing precept or levy that would raise £50m-£60m against which £200m could be borrowed for development.
Alongside this, she said she would set up her own building company to drive this and build homes faster, and would also set up, in response to the construction crisis, a construction academy.
She said the Walkie Talkie and Cheesegrater were a “blight” on London’s skyline, advocating “more rigorous masterplanning” in relation to tall buildings.
Finally, Darren Johnson, standing in for Green Party candidate Sian Berry, said the Greens would focus on the type of housing built, not just the quantity, and half of the 50,000 homes target would be for “genuinely affordable homes”.
Green Party proposals include a not-for profit company to build homes; parcelling up public sector land for smaller developers, housing associations and co-operatives; and the introduction of rent controls and secure tenancies.
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