New research published by Sadiq Khan shows just how unaffordable the private rented sector has become in London
Londoners are on average spending more than half of their pre-tax incomes on rent in 20 of the 32 London boroughs. Whilst the two worst boroughs are – unsurprisingly – Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea (where average rents are 96 per cent and 94 per cent respectively of average income); but this is not just a Zone 1 problem. Boroughs where rents are greater than 60 per cent of income on average include Hounslow, Richmond, Merton and Brent.
This is a crisis that no one can ignore. Even businesses are worried, because it is becoming a real problem for them in terms of their employees finding it unaffordable to live in London – and not just the people who clean the offices, but the graduates and managers who work in the offices too.
That is why London First has launched its Fifty Thousand Homes campaign; and, by promising to do actually do something about the housing crisis, it is one of the ways Sadiq can deliver on his pledge to be the most pro-business mayor we have had in City Hall. As he said, ‘If housing isn’t more affordable, it’s bad for Londoners and increasingly damaging for our businesses’.
This research is timely; not least because members of parliament have been debating the government’s pernicious housing bill this week.
Sadiq is right to argue that this legislation will ‘make London’s housing crisis even worse’ and ‘do nothing for Londoners struggling to pay their rent every month.’
The bill extends Right to Buy to housing associations, but putting no measures in place to ensure replacement homes for rent are built in the same area.
Moreover, it is a direct attack on council housing because local authorities are being forced to sell off some of their homes for social rent to pay for this extension of Right to Buy. Experts predict that over the next five years, 180,000 council homes will be lost because of this policy.
The Tories have chosen to ignore the huge damage this will do in London, where it will be hugely expensive for councils to build replacement council flats (let alone any extra stock we need to meet demand and solve overcrowding).
Or at least they had ignored these problems.
But now the mask has slipped. Zac Goldsmith, in an exclusive interview with the Camden New Journal, admitted the huge problem on replacement social housing. The CNJ reported:
[D]uring a visit to a housing project in Gospel Oak, Mr Goldsmith said it would be hard for the replacements for homes lost in Camden to be built here.
‘It’s really difficult,’ he said. ‘When you’re looking at places like Kensington and Chelsea or Westminster it’s really difficult to do that – it’s a mathematical obstacle.’
Of course, Goldsmith offers no solution to this – nor any opposition to this legislation, which does so much harm besides, like ending secure tenancies and forcing better-off council tenants to pay much higher rents, which risks turning what is left of council estates into ghettos.
Whether housing association or council stock, this bill is will shrink the supply of affordable housing for rent. Shelter predicts this will lead to 180,000 fewer affordable homes to rent and to buy over five years – when we desperately need more everywhere, especially in London.
When even their mayoral candidate thinks that the maths of this legislation does not add up, it is time for the Tories to think again.
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Mike Katz is a Labour list candidate for London assembly. He tweets @MikeKatz
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