Stephanie McMahon
Head of Research
On 5 May, millions of Londoners will have their say on who becomes their next Mayor. With new candidates being put forward by each party, we take a look at the main contenders and their plans for the capital.
Each of the candidates has, in their own way, promised to help tackle the ever growing housing crisis in London – but few have offered any hard facts or in depth analysis of the problem. But they have provided us with some hints as to the direction they may take if elected.
Stephanie McMahon, Head of Research at Strutt & Parker said: “The emphasis on housing from all the candidates is not unexpected, lack of affordability is one of the greatest threats to the sustainability of London. Our analysis of professional London wages shows that for two London workers buying a two bedroom flat together on a 75% LTV would find zone 6 affordable. Much of zone 6 falls within the greenbelt and this raises two significant questions, first, how can land be released across London at values which mean affordable housing is realistic, and second, does it require the greenbelt to do it. Candidates will be required to provide the detail around these questions to ensure that their deliverability aims are achievable.”
Sadiq Khan - Labour
The main focus will be on freezing transport fares and tackling the lack of housing in London by implementing a ‘living rent’ as an alternative to shared ownership. He also hopes to boost the building of social rent housing.
He wants all new homes built within the M25 to be classed as ‘affordable’ and pinned to local average earnings. These homes would be offered to Londoners first, keeping them from going to second home owners or overseas investors. There are also plans to return to a ‘key worker’ policy, which offers more affordable housing for teachers and medical staff.
There are plans to open up development land that is owned by public bodies for housing. It’s hoped this would enable more homes to be built where they are needed, rather than where developers think they can make the most money.
Finally, he will create a London-wide, not-for-profit lettings agency to promote long term, stable tenancies for responsible tenants and good landlords across London.
Building target: Minimum of 80,000 new homes a year
Zach Goldsmith - Conservative
The Conservative candidate has taken a strong environmental stance, campaigning against the expansion of Heathrow and has plans for all taxis and delivery vans to switch to electric.
This extends to housing, as he bids to protect the green belt from development and create housing that is ‘in keeping with the local area’. As this will mean less new land for housing, his answer is to instead regenerate the many London estates. This would increase both the capacity and quality of social housing.
He also plans to give Londoners the first chance to buy new homes built in the capital. And for homes that are bought by overseas investors, he wants to channel this money back into housebuilding. There are also plans to ensuring a significant proportion of all new homes are only for rent and not for sale.
Building target: Doubling home building to 50,000 a year by 2020.
Caroline Pidgeon – Liberal Democrat
Her main focus is to find a solution to the housing crisis and manage the cost of public transport.
She wants to increase the supply of housing to meet demand and tackle the “scandal of high rents”. She would tackle high rents and bad landlords by extending mandatory registration, offering long tenancies, curbing unfair letting agent fees, and giving tenants extra rights when landlords sell up.
Building some of the new homes would be a City Hall building company, which would run alongside a skills academy to train construction workers.
Caroline would create a benchmark guideline that half of housing in new developments should be affordable for the ‘majority of Londoners’. She would also work with boroughs to use the greater financial muscle they now have through their housing revenue accounts to restart their own building programmes.
Building target: 50,000 council homes to rent and 150,000 for sale or for private rent
Siân Berry – Green Party
She wants half of all new homes to be built affordably by smaller developers, communities and housing associations. Renters’ rights would be supported with a London Renters’ Union and a push for rent controls.
Siân will set up a not-for-profit housing company to help Londoners take the lead on building affordable homes and estate regeneration.
City Hall money and public land would be used to support residents in planning their own regeneration projects and to create a more diverse, public, private and co-operative sector for new homes on smaller sites.
One of her pledges is to create housing that is built to the highest environmental standards, making them warmer and cheaper to run. Older homes will also be insulated to the same standards.
Building target: 200,000 new homes.