New report shows scale of Mayor’s affordable housing challenge

The Mayor of London’s Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) 2021-26 requires building to start on 17,800 new affordable homes by next year, but new figures show more than 12,000 of these builds are not under way.

In May, the Government agreed to reduce the Mayor’s targets from a previous range of 23,900 to 27,100 starts, to the current range of between 17,800 to 19,000 – with the Greater London Authority (GLA) saying the reduction “responds to the difficult conditions London currently faces.

The annual London Assembly Affordable Housing Monitor also finds that in 2023-24, the net addition to London’s affordable housing stock was 7,674 – well below the GLA estimate that London needs a net 42,841 affordable homes each year between 2016 and 2041.

Further findings in the monitor include:

• By March 2025, the GLA had completed 871 homes under the AHP 2021-26. This means it has a minimum of 16,929 homes to complete by March 2030
• 35 per cent of homes started under the previous AHP 2016-23 are still to be completed. No deadline has been set for completions.
• 37 per cent of new build homes completed in London in 2023-24, the latest year for which figures are available, were affordable. This was 2 percentage points lower than the previous year but an increase from 19% in 2016-17
• The GLA is on track to exceed its target for at least 60 per cent of homes under the AHP 2021-26 to be for social rent. Currently, 84 per cent of starts are for social rent.
• The Boroughs of Richmond, Haringey, Bexley and Kensington and Chelsea had fewer than 15 GLA-funded affordable housing starts over two years in 2023-25

Chair of the London Assembly Housing Committee, Zoë Garbett AM, said: “We are far beyond a housing crisis – this is a housing emergency. These figures lay bare the scale of the challenge the Mayor must urgently confront. The gap between what’s being delivered and what’s desperately needed is incredibly concerning.

“With the affordable housing currently being delivered each year so far below the GLA’s own estimates of what’s needed, it is vital the Mayor uses every tool at his disposal to start turning this around.”