David Cameron pledges to protect London’s affordable homes

Flagship plans: David Cameron has agreed to the amendment by Zac Goldsmith
Reuters

David Cameron today announced that he will amend his flagship Housing Bill in an effort to meet concerns that it would cause a major loss of social housing in London.

Writing in the Standard, below, the Prime Minister says the Government is accepting an amendment put down by Tory mayoral candidate Zac Goldsmith to guarantee two “affordable homes” are built in London for each council house sold off under a new policy.

Mr Goldsmith’s campaign team estimated the change would deliver an extra 10,000 affordable homes in London on top of some 50,000 announced today in other government plans. However, Downing Street said full details would become available only after talks with London local authorities.

It was not clear, for example, whether the new homes would be built in the same boroughs which had to sell properties. The Housing and Planning Bill aims to force boroughs to sell off thousands of high-value council houses to fund a new Right To Buy scheme for housing association tenants.

Critics, including London councils and Mayor Boris Johnson, said most of the sales would be in the capital, resulting in a net loss of social housing.

Mr Goldsmith said he was “delighted” that his amendment to the Bill, which comes back to the Commons tomorrow, was being accepted. “Far too many people who grew up in London or work in London are being priced out of their own city, and we need to use every available tool,” he said.

In separate announcements today, ministers are to commission 13,000 homes on public land using similar powers to those that revived Docklands. It will see the Government take over the preparation of disused land to speed up redevelopment on five sites, including Old Oak Common, north-west London. The policy is backed by £1.2 billion for cleaning up brownfield sites for 30,000 starter homes for first-time buyers. Mr Cameron said: “Nothing like this has been done on this scale in three decades.”

Brian Berry, of the Federation of Master Builders, said: “Any measures that increase the number of small sites suitable for SME house builders will help address the housing shortfall.”

The forced sale of expensive council homes has been attacked by pressure group Shelter for threatening a loss of homes, particularly in London. Islington has said that it “could end our new-build programme”, while Southwark said it would “drive a coach and horses” through its building plans.

Sir Steve Bullock, who speaks on housing for the London Councils group, said any replacements for council homes should be offered “at the same rent levels” and “genuinely affordable to Londoners on the sort of wages Londoners earn”.

It came as Mr Goldsmith hit back at claims from his Labour rival Sadiq Khan that he was a “serial and habitual underachiever” who was not up to the job of London Mayor.

The Tory MP said he had declined a ministerial post weeks after entering Parliament in 2010 because he wanted to be able to hold government to account. Attacking Mr Khan’s record, he told BBC Radio London: “Sadiq Khan has no record at all, during his time as a parliamentarian, of working with anyone outside of his own party. It is hard to see how that would work for four years under a Conservative government.”

We'll help Londoners of all incomes onto property ladder

Commentary by Zac Goldsmith and David Cameron

LONDON begins 2016 as the greatest capital city on earth.

But housing cannot keep up. The cost of the average home is now 12 times bigger than the average salary here. There is a danger that the very people who make London great — from nurses to engineers, teachers to techies — will not be able to live here.

This is unacceptable. So many people crave the pride, responsibility and reward of a place of their own. Instead they see shoebox flats for sale at penthouse prices, and that implicit deal — you work hard, you get a house — is being broken in London.

So our mission for 2016 is to help Londoners of all incomes find a foothold on the housing ladder.

That starts with building more homes. Today, we’re announcing a radical new approach, where the Government commissions housing on land we own. It is the first time we have done so on this scale since the transformation of the Docklands area, and the impact is set to be just as great.

Alongside that, we are making available a new £1.2 billion fund to redevelop underused brownfield land. This will help build 60,000 homes right across the country, half of them starter homes with a 20 per cent discount for first-time buyers under 40.

London Help to Buy could help over 10,000 households. Already 130,000 people are being helped onto the housing ladder with a 20 per cent loan, free for the first five years. But because homes in London are more expensive, we are going to double the loan to 40 per cent here.

We are massively expanding shared ownership, where people can part rent, part buy.

And we are giving housing association tenants the right to buy at a discount. That will be funded by selling high-value council homes when they become available. And as a result of Zac’s amendment to the Housing Bill, we will ensure that for every council house sold, at least two affordable homes are built.

We have reached this package after months of negotiation, led by the two of us. That highlights the big choice for Londoners in five months. They can continue with a Conservative mayor — and a candidate who is already delivering affordable homes to Londoners. Or they can allow Sadiq Khan to use City Hall to score political points for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party — a party which doesn’t believe in home ownership.

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