Boris Johnson pledges £1bn to help create thousands of homes
BORIS JOHNSON launched a £1bn plan yesterday that he pledged would build thousands of affordable homes for low-income households in London.
Delivering his draft housing strategy in Greenwich yesterday, the Mayor of London said the £1bn will help deliver 45,000 more low cost homes into the next mayoral term.
The £1bn is part of the £3bn affordable housing settlement for 2015-18 announced by George Osborne in June’s spending review.
Under the new housing plan, Johnson has pledged to bring in a new target to build 42,000 homes a year for the next 10 years – the highest rate since the 1930s. The plans say at least 15,000 of these each year will be affordable while a further 5,000 will be built for the private rented sector.
“Since the election in May last year I have fulfilled my pledges and released £3bn worth of public land for development – the equivalent of 210 football pitches – but we must respond to the scale of demand, the demographic pressure revealed by the 2011 census and that is why it is right that we are launching a new strategy today to up the pace,” Johnson said.
Plans also include a new £160m housing bank to help accelerate development and expanding the First Steps scheme from 50,000 to 250,000 Londoners over the next decade.