Sadiq Khan was today accused of “de-prioritising families”, after it was revealed that the proportion of family-sized homes started by the Greater London Authority (GLA) have dramatically fallen by over 40 percent in just one year.
The statistics, which were obtained by the GLA Conservatives housing spokesman Andrew Boff, show that 13 percent of all GLA funded affordable housing starts in 2018/19 were family-sized homes, down from 23 percent in the previous financial year.
The Mayor started 2,005 family-sized homes in 2018/19, out of a total of 14,544 housing starts. This represents a 30 percent fall from 2017/18 when 2,892 out of a total of 12,555 affordable housing starts were family-sized.
In some boroughs – including Richmond and Merton – the Mayor failed to fund a single home which had three or more bedrooms.
This comes as Sadiq Khan has repeatedly come under fire for scrapping the family homes target in his housing strategy, and instead prioritising smaller units.
Andrew Boff AM, GLA Conservative Housing Spokesman, commented: “For too many Londoners, our great city can only ever be a stepping stone rather than a permanent home. A severe lack of affordable, decent sized homes means that thousands of Londoners are driven out of our city as soon as they decide to start a family. Of those families who stay, far too many are in overcrowded accommodation.
“Lasting damage will be done to London if it continues to become a family-free zone; we desperately need thousands more homes which have three bedrooms or more.
“But London is heading in the wrong direction. These shocking statistics show that raising a family in London has become even more of an impossible dream under Sadiq Khan. The proportion of family-sized homes started by the Mayor has nearly halved over the course of just a year, with some boroughs being deprived of a single GLA funded family home in 2018/19.
“Against this backdrop, it is extraordinary that Sadiq Khan has decided to remove a family-sized homes target from his housing strategy. Make no mistake, this severe drop in the number of homes has come about as a result of this senseless decision to de-prioritise families.
“Once again Sadiq Khan has demonstrated that he is entirely incapable of delivering the change that London needs”.
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