Housing

Affordable Homes Crisis

Sadiq Khan’s inability to tackle London’s affordable homes crisis is one of the most glaring failures of his mayoralty. It is a betrayal of the people who voted for him.

Things may be even worse than they seem. The mayor’s claims of progress not only far short of his election pledges. They appear to be based on dodgy data that conceal from the public what is really going on

My investigations have found that many of the affordable flats and houses Khan has announced as being under construction are in fact phantom homes where little or no work has begun. Others appear to have been counted twice in successive years.

The findings suggest the real number of affordable homes started last year is substantially lower than the headline figures announced by Khan. At best this is the result of bureaucratic incompetence, at worst City Hall is inflating the numbers to flatter the mayor’s performance on a key policy.

My investigations have had extensive coverage since being first reported in the London Evening Standard on 11 June 2018.  The GLA Conservatives grilled Khan during Mayor’s Question Time about my findings (video). The SunThe Express, and CityAM reported that Khan lost his cool during the exchange about my findings. LBC also reported on m findings.