London Mayor Sadiq Khan has come under fire for what has been described as a “catastrophic” failure to meet affordable housing targets, with only 13 per cent of homes started despite more than half the allocated time having passed.
The criticism was levelled by the Conservatives’ shadow housing secretary, Kevin Hollinrake, as the Labour Government announced an additional £300 million for affordable housebuilding across the country, with London set to receive £60 million of the funding.
While the mayor’s office has blamed delays on “the disastrous legacy of the previous Government”, Mr Hollinrake argues that Sir Sadiq has failed to deliver on a key priority for Londoners.
Housing programme lagging behind
According to the latest data, between October and December of last year, just 902 new affordable homes were started under the mayor’s housing programme across Greater London. Although this is an improvement on the previous two quarters, where fewer than 200 homes were started, the figures remain alarmingly low given the scale of the housing crisis.
The funding for the programme was initially provided by the last Conservative Government, which allocated £4 billion for at least 35,000 affordable homes to be delivered by March 2026. However, this target was later revised down to between 23,900 and 27,100 homes. Despite additional top-ups from Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Budget last year and the latest £60 million injection, the total number of homes started so far stands at just 3,026.
With the clock ticking, this means that Sir Sadiq is only 13 per cent of the way towards even the lowest end of the revised target, while more than half of the available time has already elapsed since funding was first approved in July 2023.
Tory criticism of Khan’s leadership
Mr Hollinrake took to social media to denounce the slow progress, writing on X (formerly Twitter) that the figures demonstrate Sir Sadiq is “not fit for purpose” as mayor.
Robert Colvile, director of the Centre for Policy Studies think tank and co-author of the Conservative Party’s 2019 manifesto, also criticised the mayor’s performance.
“His original argument for failing to build in 2024 was that he hadn’t got the money from central Government,” Mr Colvile wrote. “Then he got the money, and started claiming he needed more money. But at some point, failure to build is just failure to build. And he is absolutely failing to build.”
The Conservative criticism reflects wider concerns that the mayor’s affordable housing programme has not been implemented at the necessary pace to address London’s housing crisis, where demand far outstrips supply.
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Mayor’s office defends housing record
In response to the backlash, a spokeswoman for Sir Sadiq Khan’s office defended the mayor’s record, pointing to external challenges and the progress made despite difficult circumstances.
“The disastrous legacy of the previous Government has meant a slump in housebuilding across the country, but there are welcome green shoots of recovery in these figures, with an increase in City Hall-backed affordable housing starts and completions compared to last year,” the spokeswoman said.
“Since being elected, Sadiq is proud to have delivered record-breaking genuinely affordable homebuilding, including backing London’s boroughs to start more new council homes than at any time since the 1970s. The result of this success is that, even in these tough times, affordable housing completions are 50 per cent higher in just the first nine months of this year than what the previous mayor delivered during his entire last year in office.”
The mayor’s office also reiterated Sir Sadiq’s commitment to improving the pace of construction and working with ministers to accelerate the delivery of affordable homes.
A political battle over housing
The ongoing dispute over London’s affordable housing programme has become a key political battleground ahead of the next mayoral election. Critics argue that the delays in delivering affordable homes reflect wider inefficiencies in City Hall under Sir Sadiq’s leadership, while his supporters point to the economic challenges inherited from the previous Government and progress made despite these obstacles.
With demand for affordable housing at an all-time high, pressure is mounting on the mayor to demonstrate tangible improvements in the coming months. Whether the latest funding boost will be enough to significantly accelerate the pace of housebuilding remains to be seen.
