Affordable home progress stats spark row

JESSICA FRANK-KEYES

A ROW has broken out over why London has built just one affordable home a month, amid warnings the capital’s housing crisis is fast becoming an emergency situation. New figures reveal just three affordable homes were started by City Hall during April, May and June 2023 – while stats for previous years extend upwards of 25,000.

Conservative City Hall housing spokesperson Lord Shaun Bailey said: “Khan has fallen years behind the latest housing targets and is failing to deliver the affordable, family homes that Londoners need.”

But the mayor’s team insisted their lack of progress was down to the government not signing off the funding until July – three months after that quarter’s programme should have begun. A spokesperson for the mayor said “building genuinely affordable homes” had hit their highest level since records began under Khan’s mayoralty. A government spokesperson said: “Low delivery in a particular quarter does not mean there is a risk of missing overall targets.”