Sadiq Khan highlights severe housing challenges in London

Sadiq Khan highlights severe housing challenges in London
Credit: James Manning/PA Wire

London (Parliament Politics Magazine) – According to Mayor Sadiq Khan, London is undergoing the toughest housing market since the 2008 global financial crisis.

Mayor Sadiq Khan, in an address to the annual London Conference, expressed high interest rates, a rise in construction materials and the lasting effect of Brexit had left “housebuilding on its knees”. 

He expressed the average London house cost was “14 times the typical household income”, while someone purchasing a modest three-bedroom house in Tooting – where he grew up in a council house – “would not see much change from ÂŁ1m. Anyone claiming the solution lies in cutting back on flat whites or Netflix needs to have a serious reality check,” he stated.

How has housebuilding in London decreased under Sadiq Khan’s leadership?

The cross-party London Assembly slammed Mr Khan’s own record on housebuilding, with solely 2,358 homes beginning with City Hall funding in 2023-24 – the lower level since he became mayor eight years ago. Mr Khan was presented £4bn from the previous Tory government and was assigned a target of creating between 23,900 and 27,100 affordable homes by March 2026.

However, by March, just 1,777 homes had been initiated. There were also 581 beginnings “leftover” from the mayor’s previous £4.8bn housing contract making a total of 2,358. He has pledged to build 40,000 new council homes by 2030. By April, a total of 24,031 council homes had been created in London and 8,862 completed.

How does Sadiq Khan plan to address the housing shortage?

Mr Khan stiffened the definition of inexpensive homes when he became mayor. He was due to inform the conference, hosted by the Centre for London thinktank: “When I first became mayor eight years ago, the number of fresh genuinely affordable homes being supported by City Hall had fallen to the lowest levels since records started. The cupboard was left bare.

“Since then, we’ve got London structure again, with more homes constructed in our city than at any time since the 1930s. But we’ve been fighting against the tide of previous administrations.

I want to be candid about the extent of the challenges we now meet, and about how only an answer equal in action to the test will take us from where we are, to where we ought to be.

The chaos left by the last administration has had a catastrophic impact on housebuilding.”

Daniele Naddei

Daniele Naddei is a journalist at Parliament News covering European affairs, was born in Naples on April 8, 1991. He also serves as the Director of the CentroSud24 newspaper. During the period from 2010 to 2013, Naddei completed an internship at the esteemed local radio station Radio Club 91. Subsequently, he became the author of a weekly magazine published by the Italian Volleyball Federation of Campania (FIPAV Campania), which led to his registration in the professional order of Journalists of Campania in early 2014, listed under publicists. From 2013 to 2018, he worked as a freelance photojournalist and cameraman for external services for Rai and various local entities, including TeleCapri, CapriEvent, and TLA. Additionally, between 2014 and 2017, Naddei collaborated full-time with various newspapers in Campania, both in print and online. During this period, he also resumed his role as Editor-in-Chief at Radio Club 91.
Naddei is actively involved as a press officer for several companies and is responsible for editing cultural and social events in the city through his association with the Medea Fattoria Sociale. This experience continued until 2021. Throughout these years, he hosted or collaborated on football sports programs for various local broadcasters, including TLA, TvLuna, TeleCapri, Radio Stonata, Radio Amore, and Radio Antenna Uno.
From 2016 to 2018, Naddei was employed as an editor at newspapers of national interest within the Il24.it circuit, including Internazionale24, Salute24, and OggiScuola. Since 2019, Naddei has been one of the creators of the Rabona television program "Calcio è Passione," which has been broadcast on TeleCapri Sport since 2023.