London’s council housing renaissance has now seen the number of new starts reach their highest level since the 1970s.
A total of 4,689 new council homes were started in London in the 2020-21 financial year, thanks to the Mayor’s Building Council Homes for Londoners programme. London has not seen municipal homebuilding on this scale for more than 40 years (1).
The number of council homes started annually has increased six-fold since 2016, with only 774 started in the final year of the previous Mayoralty. The Mayor’s commitment to unlocking funds for council homebuilding from the Government has helped ambitious councils grow their capacity and expertise to deliver at scale for the first time in a generation. More than three-quarters (3,411) of the council homes started in London last year received funding support from the Mayor.
The renaissance is set to continue, as earlier this year the Mayor agreed a new deal with ministers to fund thousands of council and other genuinely affordable homes for Londoners over the next five years in the first round of bidding for his new 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme. The Mayor’s new programme –combined with the remainder of the extended 2016-23 programme - will see 79,000 new genuinely affordable homes started over the next five years. The majority of homes for social rent in the 2021-26 programme will be delivered by local authorities, demonstrating that councils are back in the driving seat of social housing delivery in London.
The Mayor is also ensuring that new council homes built on his watch meet leading environmental standards to help tackle the climate emergency, with all developments of 10 or more homes to be net zero-carbon and to incorporate sustainable urban green spaces.
Sadiq announced the latest figures on a visit to Welsford Street in South Bermondsey, where City Hall has invested £1m into Southwark’s project to build 10 new family-sized council homes. Southwark is one of the Mayor’s biggest council housebuilding partners, with an approved allocation of £192m to deliver 2,049 affordable homes under the Building Council Homes for Londoners funding programme. Southwark had the fourth highest number of Affordable homes starts (745 homes) recorded by the GLA for any London borough in 20-21.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: “The 1970s was the last great period of municipal homebuilding before 40 years of decline saw us inherit a mere trickle of council home construction in 2016. I am proud to say that we have breathed new life into homebuilding in London with boroughs across the capital rising to the challenge of building the homes Londoners so desperately need.
“The new standards enshrined in my London Plan will ensure council homes of the 2020s are a new generation of spacious, light, green homes that will serve generations to come. These homes will set the standard nationally when it comes to design, sustainability and safety. Thousands of Londoners will spend this Christmas in secure, affordable council homes because of what we have achieved over the last five years.
“We must now build on this success, empower councils and deliver the homes we need to tackle London’s housing crisis.”
Councillor Stephanie Cryan, Cabinet Member for Council Homes and Homelessness, said: “We are delighted to welcome the Mayor of London back to Southwark to celebrate the latest impressive figures on new council homes in London. We are proud to showcase our new houses in Welsford Street, Bermondsey, which exemplify the high-quality standards we have in place when building council homes for our residents.
“We know these spacious, well-designed houses with picturesque gardens will provide the ideal homes for local families to raise their children. This development is just one of many housing projects we are working on across the borough to meet our goal of providing 2,500 new council homes by May 2022.”
“We know these spacious, well-designed houses with picturesque gardens will provide the ideal homes for local families to raise their children. This development is just one of many housing projects we are working on across the borough to meet our goal of providing 2,500 new council homes by May 2022.” Photo by Jorge Royan, Wikimedia commons.