Politics

David Lammy: Boris lacks "vision"

Tottenham MP is still considering a bid for the capital's top job

June 17, 2014
Lammy v Boris—a potential battleground for 2016
Lammy v Boris—a potential battleground for 2016

Labour MP for Tottenham David Lammy has used a debate on housing to attack London Mayor Boris Johnson, ahead of his own possible future mayoral bid.

Appearing on a panel at the London Festival of Architecture on Monday, Lammy criticised the Mayor’s lack of “vision” in tackling London’s housing crisis, both in terms of building new homes and in ensuring homes are affordable to a wide range of Londoners.

Speaking to Prospect after the debate, he said: “I just don’t see that the current mayor is nearly meeting the housing need or has a vision of sufficient scale to meet the demand that’s there, particularly around affordability.”

Onstage, he slammed the rate of rent defined as “affordable” in London, set at 80 per cent of the market rate, as unrealistic. “We keep using this phrase ‘affordable’ as if [that rate] was affordable… why are we deceiving the public with this idea that it is?” he said.

The rate was set at 80 per cent by Boris Johnson’s administration as part of his “London plan.” Prior to his plan, councils were able to set their rents as low as 30-40 per cent of market rates.

Lammy said London needs “a mayor that’s bold enough to get honest about how real people can get on the ladder.” Lammy told Prospect that he is considering running for mayor in 2016, but has not yet made up his mind.

Richard Blakeway, London's Deputy Mayor in charge of housing, also spoke at the event, emphasising his administration's committment to double housebuilding in London. Johnson has committed to a target of 42,000 homes per year for the next ten years, up from around 20,000 in 2012.

Johnson this month claimed that his new "housing zones" approach, which makes it easier for local authorities to identify and build on usable brownfield land, would deliver 50,000 new homes in the capital.

But concerns have been raised over the provision of affordable housing in the capital over the next few years. Last month, trade magazine Inside Housing reported that City Hall representatives had asked housing associations to scale up their plans to build affordable homes in the 2015-18 period, after several submitted plans to build significantly fewer homes than they had in the previous four years.

The London Festival of Architecture runs 1-30 June.