City Hall to buy land for affordable homes

The money that is made from selling the land to homebuilders will be recycled to buy further land for new and affordable homes.

City Hall to buy land for affordable homes

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is to designate £250m for City Hall to use for buying and preparing land for new and affordable housing.

The money that is made from selling the land to homebuilders will be recycled to buy further land for new and affordable homes.

In his first draft housing strategy, the Mayor of London provides a plan to address the housing crisis over the next few years which includes building 90,000 affordable homes by 2021, ensuring a better deal for private renters and supporting new housing providers including community builders.

The Mayor wishes to bring together tenants, landlords and boroughs to develop a new ‘London Model’ focussing on increasing tenancy security whilst the legitimate rights of landlords are protected too.

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said: “It is shameful that a generation of young people are being priced out of the city they grew up in because of the housing crisis.

“From £250m to kick-start my plans to secure more land for new and affordable homes, to a new model and fairer deal for millions of private renters, I want to help all Londoners facing the housing crisis.

“This launch marks the start of a three-month consultation - I want as many Londoners as possible to let me know their views on how we can improve housing in London.”

Noel Meredith, executive director of United Trust Bank, added: “As a leading provider of development finance to SME house builders, we welcome the proposals set out in the Mayor of London’s draft housing strategy for the capital.

“However, the Mayor’s target of 250,000 new homes for London over the next five years could be stilted if some Boroughs continue to seek onerous levels of developer contributions, particularly on sites of less than 10 units.

“United Trust Bank is ready, willing and able to support experienced SME developers with the funding they require to build the thousands of new homes London needs.”