The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, today appointed Lord Bob Kerslake to lead a review to further improve and streamline housing development across the wider
Greater London Authority (GLA) Group and deliver more of the genuinely affordable homes Londoners need.
During his first term as Mayor, Sadiq Khan achieved record-breaking delivery of genuinely affordable homes: with more than 17,000 low-cost homes to rent and buy started through his affordable homes programme in 2019/20, and work beginning on more new council homes than in any year since 1983.
Following his re-election, the Mayor remains committed to building on this progress by having more genuinely affordable homes built on land owned by the GLA.
The review will examine housing delivery across the GLA Group and make recommendations to enable the Group to work together more effectively and benefit from collective experience and expertise. It will provide a high-level view of housing delivery across the Group to date, identifying the number of homes built and the different routes to delivery. The review will also inform the best way to approach piloting a “City Hall developer” to further expand the supply of much-needed low-cost homes for Londoners.
A number of different parts of the GLA Group are involved in housing development, to differing extents. Transport for London (TfL), London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), Old Oak Common and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) have significant development teams focussed on housing delivery. Other parts of the Group (Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) and London Fire Commission (LFC)) generally take a more indirect approach, mainly concerned with disposal of surplus land which may then be used for new homes.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: “I’m doing all I can to tackle the housing crisis in the capital, and am proud to have achieved record-breaking delivery of genuinely affordable homes during my first term as Mayor, including working with boroughs to start more new council homes than in any year since 1983.
“I’m determined to build on this success to deliver more homes for Londoners. I can think of no-one more qualified than Lord Kerslake to lead this review into how the GLA Group can strengthen its focus on delivering more genuinely affordable homes. I’m grateful to him for agreeing to bring the benefit of his passion and expertise to this subject.”
Lord Bob Kerslake said: "London urgently needs more genuinely affordable homes and I am delighted to be asked to lead this review into how the GLA's own arrangements might be streamlined and strengthened". Photo by DAVID HOLT, Wikimedia commons.