Plan to boost housebuilding puts affordable homes at risk

Developers will be allowed to build fewer affordable homes while claiming higher subsidies under plans to solve London’s housing crisis.

- Kiran Stacey Policy editor

Steve Reed, the housing secretary, and Sadiq Khan, the capital’s mayor, will announce the package within weeks. Officials say it is a time-limited intervention aimed at reversing a sudden drop in building.

The plans have been welcomed by developers but condemned by charities who said more people would be made homeless.

A spokesperson for Khan said: “The changes will aim to unblock stalled sites and give the mayor stronger levers to approve homes and bring thousands of homes forward more quickly as we continue to build a better, fairer, more prosperous London for all.”

Mairi MacRae, head of campaigns and policy at the charity Shelter, said: “Plans to slash targets on affordable housing in London will allow profit-driven developers to continue looking after their bottom line at the expense of 97,000 children who are growing up homeless in the capital.”

She added: “The government must urgently reverse these plans.”