Pro-Building Group Urges Labour To Keep Bigger London Housing Target

4 min read14 August

PricedOut, a non-partisan campaign group for affordable homes, was established in 2006 with the aim of urging ministers to increase housing supply. 

It has largely welcomed the new Labour Government’s attempt to increase housebuilding and reform the planning system, which was at the heart of the party’s election-winning manifesto. 

The group said it was “absolutely right” Labour had reinstated mandatory targets and was prepared to undo “the destructive weakening of targets” under the previous Conservative administration. It said this was vital in “once again making sure that local authorities have to deliver sufficient homes”.

However, PricedOut has submitted a response to the National Planning Policy Framework — which sets out the Government’s planning policies — urging ministers to revise their decision to cut the housing target for London by 20 per cent.

The group called on activists who want to keep the target of 100,000 homes in the capital to support their efforts by also writing to the NPPF.

Freddie Poser, Executive Director at PricedOut, told PoliticsHome he was “really excited” to see the Government’s ambition on solving the housing crisis, in particular by raising the national annual target to 370,000.

But he said the capital needed to form a bigger part of Labour’s plans for addressing the property deficit across the country, and that cutting the figure was a “mistake”.

“The UK’s most unaffordable city, London, particularly needs to be a part of Labour’s ambitions to tackle the housing crisis. The new housing needs assessment reduces the target for London by 20,000 homes a year,” he said.

“This is exactly where the Government should focus its efforts so it can see the biggest impact on improving the lives of working people.

“We are encouraging everyone to write into the NPPF consultation to support restoring the London housing crisis.”

In July, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced a nationwide housing target of 370,000 homes per year to increase housebuilding. The new mandatory target for local authorities will include the construction of a wide range of homes for first-time buyers and those needing council houses, and will use parts of the green belt where deemed necessary.

Speaking last month, Rayner described the 100,000 target set by the Tories as an “arbitrary target which was absolute nonsense”. Around 35,000 homes were built in London last year — far below the new 80,000 target.

According to the Office for National Statistics, the 50 least affordable areas in the UK are within London — while nearly half of all areas are in the “least affordable decile”.

PricedOut has called for the NPPF to give affordability more of a weighting to make up for the removal of the “urban uplift”. The urban uplift was a policy put in by the previous government to increase building in densely populated cities such as London and Manchester.

The group has proposed that, without increasing the weight of affordability, the Labour Government could reintroduce the London uplift which would maintain the target for the city at over 100,000 homes.

Data produced by PricedOut has found that dozens of authorities in London have failed to reach their housing targets over the last decade.

Areas such as Islington have built an average of 843 homes per year over the last ten years, whereas the minimum number of homes needed to meet current demand was 1,465 over this period, according to data from Lichfield’s, a development consultancy.

Barnet, Lewisham, Hackney, Camden, Barking and Dagenham, and Greenwich are also examples of areas of London which have fallen behind on the number of homes needed to meet existing demand. 

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said all areas of the country “must play” their part in delivering 1.5 million homes over the next five years.

“We must radically boost delivery in the capital to meet housing pressures and power growth. Under our new plans London will be asked to deliver record levels of housebuilding,” they told PoliticsHome.

“This Government will work in partnership with the Mayor to increase housing delivery and affordable housing provision in London.”

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