The PM says it’s her ‘personal mission’ to fix our “broken housing market’. If this were the start of a wholly new approach to building housing for those who need it most, then I would welcome it, but if the Prime Minster thinks that £2bn by itself will solve the problem, she is wrong – it will be just a drop in the ocean.
The London Boroughs are ready, willing, and able to step up the amount of new building that we do and recognising that there are more homeless families in London than in the whole of the rest of the country, we expect to be at the forefront of a renaissance of Council Housing.
The housing situation in London is now a full-blown emergency that requires immediate action. According to the Government’s own calculations, the capital needs 72,000 new homes a year to meet demand. Yet, without urgent investment in social housing, and a lifting of the borrowing cap for councils to build more of its own housing, many Londoners will not be able to secure the homes that they desperately need.
I grew up in a Council House and I have spent years trying to get more homes built in London, despite the obstacles put in our way by this government and its predecessor. If Mrs May is serious I would be very happy to meet her personally and explain how she can go from conference rhetoric, to action tomorrow.
Sir Steve Bullock 