Johnson presides over a city in the grip of a housing crisis
Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, could be struggling to find landlords to provide his target of delivering 45,000 affordable homes in a 2015-18 housebuilding programme, according to reports in a trade magazine.
Affinity Sutton, a 57,000-home landlord, confirmed to housing industry weekly Inside Housing that they had bid to build fewer affordable homes in the period 2015-18 than they bid for in 2011-15.
A £1.25bn budget is available for landlords who want to build affordable homes in the city. At least four other landlords have made significantly reduced bids, Inside Housing reports.
The deadline for bids was 10th March.
The Chief Executive of a major landlord told the magazine that landlords’ reduced bids “posed a risk” to Johnson’s target.
“We don’t want to be creating tenancies that are doomed to fail,” he added.
Inside Housing reports that City Hall representatives have contacted four of the capital's largest landlords after the deadline to ask them to increase their bids.
Writing on his blog, Labour London assembly member Tom Copley said the London "Affordable Rent" rate of 80 per cent of market rent was deterring housing associations from bidding because they feared tenants would not be able to afford it. The affordable rent rate was originally set out in Boris Johnson's "London Plan," and passed by the London Assembly in 2013.
Copley said: “The Mayor needs to explain why he ignored... the overwhelming evidence that “Affordable rent” would not work in London. I urge him to reconsider his decision to ban boroughs from requiring affordable housing at social rent levels of 30-40% of market rents.”
A spokesperson for the Mayor's office was unable to confirm "finer detail" on bids as they are still being assessed.
They told Prospect:
"We are currently assessing bids for the 2015/18 programme. As part of this, partners were given feedback relating to their specific bids and an opportunity to make changes in response. The feedback given to individual partners should not be interpreted as having any implications for the programme as a whole. We expect to announce allocations in July 2014."
