Sadiq Khan, newly elected for a third term as London Mayor, is already under pressure from the Labour Left to be more radical with his approach to housing.
Writing in the historic left-wing publication Tribune, Adam Peggs - who is described as “a writer and activist based in South London” - was criticising Khan for not going far enough with his policies, past and promised.
Peggs criticises Khan’s Mayoral election promise of building 40,000 homes by 2030, writing: “London still needs many more to properly confront the crisis: Shelter’s figures, adjusted for the capital’s population, put the number of new social rented homes needed north of 125,000 by 2030.”
There is also a suggestion that one of Khan’s most innovative suggestions - creating a public sector development company to build homes - is not radical enough, Peggs says the Mayor fails to make clear how such a developer would operate and make decisions “in fundamentally different ways to its private sector counterparts.”
Khan is also accused of “a regression” in other housing policies.
For example, the Mayor advocates buying 10,000 more homes over the next decade, equivalent to 1,000 a year; these would them be repurposed into the social housing sector. Peggs slams Khan for not buying more homes, accusing him of a “lessening of ambition …. where precisely the opposite is needed.”
Khan - who has for some years issued a high volume of calls for new powers to levy property taxes - is nonetheless criticised for not issuing still more statements demanding powers. Peggs states in relation to property taxes on empty homes that if Khan had only called for them more often and louder, “would have shown a commitment to the bold housing agenda London needs.”
The beleaguered London Mayor is also put on notice that “there will be little prospect of meaningfully addressing the crisis unless he and the Greater London Assembly show political courage — and a willingness to direct the scale and powers of City Hall to much bolder ends.”
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New policy
Take property from hard working law abiding landlord and give away rent free to first illegal immigrant who gets across the channel
So basically no change in labour policy for the last 3 hundred years
Comrades, you will have nothing, but you will be happy.
And labour . Just got mayors at moment. F worse when in gov.
They could also….. oh I don’t know….. Control immigration 👍🏻🤔. Never mind, back to the policies of North Korea 🇰🇵….. and people are confused why we are leaving.
With around 80% not actually voting for Khan or at all, London will continue to fester.
He has shown himself completely incapable of managing public services with the shambles that is TFL and Crime so bad that just yesterday an elderly lady was murdered at a Bus stop in broad daylight - the murderer was later caught only because there were dozens of witnesses... Just another day in London. Yet here we are planning to cram in more random unknown killers,drug dealers etc into Rabbit Hutch housing in areas that lack Dentists, Doctors, Hospitals and Schools, thus just adding to the third world slum feeling.
Welcome to third-world London,
Peggs - a typical lefty "writer and activist". What's that when it's at home? Extremely good at spending other people's money. I suspect he's never contributed to society himself with such a useless role in life. How did this waste of space get any airtime?
The Conservatives are useless, Labour is useless and dangerous.
Why are the only solutions these people come up with is more taxation and regulation . If you cannot control your Borders and a million people are arriving each year . you could never build enough houses.
These people have never learnt the basic economic principles of supply and demand. Or they are masochists.
Why hasn’t the paper written by Robert Jenrick published by the Centre for Policy Studies not had sufficient exposure in the media? Nor has it been aired for discussion on Landlord Today. I believe it gives another reason for the chronic housing shortage.
Meanwhile if you want to read this paper google Robert Jenrick’s paper.
First issue with this is Pegg has used Shelters number which are wholly inaccurate…!
Khaaaaaaaann!!!!
New policy is to put bicycles in boot of gas guzzling off roaders in case of impending photo opportunities
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