“From the moment he gets his feet under the desk in City Hall, the mayor must meaningfully address the number one priority for the capital’s firms – the housing shortage, Confederation of British Industry’s London director Lucy Haynes said.
“We must see a housing strategy within the mayor’s first 100 days that commits to building 50,000 homes a year - enabling the city to continue to attract and keep its exceptionally talented workforce.”
Front and centre was an ambitious target to make 50 per cent of all new homes affordable.
This is backed by turning land owned by his office and Transport for London over to increase property supply.
Mr Khan also plans to connect building to new infrastructure projects, including Crossrail 2 and Docklands Light Railway and the Bakerloo Line extensions.
“I’ll break the homebuilding logjam by setting up Homes for Londoners – a new and powerful team at the heart of City Hall – and building an alliance of all those with a stake in building new homes for Londoners,” he promised.
This includes supporting housing associations - which build 40 per cent of all London’s new homes - and that have committed to double their construction pipelines from 90,000 to 180,000 homes.
Mr Khan also backed councils to enforce new rules to maximise affordable housing in any new developments.
One of the more radical policy statements will see the creation of a not-for-profit lettings agency for “good landlords”, alongside a website naming and shaming rogue landlords.
“I am opposed to the government’s plans to raise rents for working families and to force the sell off of council homes to highest bidder, which will lead to a hollowing out of the capital, damaging our social mix,” he stated before the election.
We must see a housing strategy within the mayor’s first 100 days that commits to building 50,000 homes a year. Lucy HaynesJane King, mortgage consultant at London-based Ash-Ridge Private Finance, said his pledge to set up a not for profit lettings agency is a very good idea and one he should concentrate on.
“Londoners have a whole myriad of affordable homes schemes such as shared ownership, Help to Buy London etc; I think it is the lettings sector that continue to provide accommodation at a fair price and should be shaken up.”
Meanwhile, the Scottish National Party also came out top in the polls last week, although not with the majority the party was hoping for.
Its target north of the border is to build at least 50,000 new affordable homes during this parliament, a commitment worth more than £3bn.
The SNP also pledged to introduce successor to the Help to Buy (Scotland) scheme during this term, with a renewed focus on support for affordable home ownership a support homebuyers across Scotland.
The Scottish government has already introduced the Private Housing (Tenancies) Bill to provide security and stability for tenants in the private rented sector, preventing landlords from asking a tenant to leave simply because the fixed-term has ended.
Party leader Nicola Sturgeon also said she is addressing the problem of excessive rent rises for sitting tenants by giving local authorities in rent pressure areas the ability to apply to MPs to set a cap on increases.
