New developments in London require a relentless focus on affordability – nothing less will do
For the rest of the summer, London politics is formally in recess. Yet, the city keeps on moving and the Mayor has been publicly engaged with the housing elements of a number of high-profile developments.
Vent your rent, to music
If, like me, you wish this generation had its own Joe Strummer or Woody Guthrie, writing protest songs about the social challenges of the day – i.e. bad housing* – well, you’re in luck. A new choir of private renters in London, called Section 21, is being announced this Saturday at Royal Festival Hall in London.
Enjoy the summer – but come back ready to end the London housing crisis
As is so often the case in the week before politicians break for the summer, we’ve had a raft of announcements, predictions and indicators in the last week – including a number of focused reports today from English Housing Survey data.
Coupled with announcements made at yesterday’s Mayoral Question Time (the last until September), private renters in London have a diagnosis and some solutions to ponder over the summer.
But equally, it is hoped that these reports will have brought added impetus to plans being written by the housing team at City Hall, ready to hit the ground running after the summer.
Housing emergency drives ‘blue light’ workers out of London
There have been a huge number of articles written in the last fortnight about the future of Britain, with many focused on the potential effects on London’s economy of the country leaving the EU.
What must not be lost in these debates, though, is the focus on the structural problems that the city faced before the referendum. One of the most fundamental in recent years has been the fact that London’s housing crisis has forced many professionals out of the city.
Sadiq says his plans are “ambitious but realistic”
This week will mark 50 days since Sadiq Khan was elected Mayor of London in an election that was defined by the capital’s housing crisis. Yet since that point private renters (and indeed all Londoners hit by its failed housing system) have had to wait patiently to hear the detail within the Mayor’s commitments.
The new Mayor’s in-tray
London has a new Mayor. Sadiq Khan was elected last Thursday with 1.3m votes, the largest personal mandate for any British politician in history. That gives him a lot of clout in implementing his manifesto, whether that’s dealing with local councils or the Westminster government.
Let’s remind ourselves what he promised. On our Vote Homes comparison site, Sadiq came in behind the Green Party candidate Sian Berry with more amber policies (ones we felt were okay) than greens (policies we called for). And while he had fewer greens than the Lib Dem, Caroline Pidgeon, he had no policies we thought were terrible (marked red) to Caroline’s two (on security and rent levels).
Finally, Zac and Sadiq go head-to-head on housing
After months of debate and campaigning, the London Mayoral election is imminent. Despite housing being the absolute number one issue of the election, the two frontrunners have not managed to face each other to debate it.
There have been general hustings between Sadiq Khan and Zac Goldsmith, including the Evening Standard and Centre for London debate on 21 April, where, amid heated exchanges on policing, transport and extremism, the only real look-in that housing had simply highlighted the similarities between the candidates: building ambitions, first dibs for Londoners, and refusal to build on the green belt (despite Zac’s desire to paint Sadiq as a park concreter).
UKIP’s answer to London’s housing crisis
The final manifesto we’re looking at for Vote Homes is UKIP’s Peter Whittle’s. Like all the other candidates, Peter recognises that housing is the biggest challenge facing London. But unlike the other candidates, he sees the cause as excess demand, rather than a shortage of supply.
Sian Berry’s pitch to London’s renters
The Green Party candidate Sian Berry has already promised to establish a Tenants’ Union for London. But what else does she have up her sleeve? She recently published her full manifesto and we’ve now updated her scorecard on www.votehomes2016.com.
Zac sets out his stall for renters
The Conservative candidate for London Mayor, Zac Goldsmith, has published his housing manifesto, and we’ve updated the Vote Homes policy grid with his offer for London’s renters.
As the candidate of the governing party in Westminster, it was always going to be interesting to see if he would go any further than current government policy. One of the biggest divides between the Conservatives and the other parties is on security of tenure, and it’s safe to say that Zac has stuck his neck out on this, though we’re yet to be convinced that renters will benefit from his proposal.