Housing is an immensely important issue for the country as a whole, particularly when it comes to London. The provision of new and affordable homes is something we have to do more about. Commenting on home building, Tony Devenish, Assembly Member for West Central said, “I will continue to fight tirelessly for the expansion of home building in our city.” 

It is crucial that we use publicly owned land to build new homes. Transport for London (TfL) owns a property portfolio sixteen times the size of Hyde Park. Unfortunately, the Mayor has only constructed 322 homes on TfL land in his first three years in office! The Mayor must step up his efforts and deliver on his commitment to build to 10,000 new homes on this land by 2021. 

Approximately 60% of disposable NHS land lies in London. However, currently there is only ONE joint NHS-GLA building project on going. There needs to be greater partnership between the Assembly and our NHS so that we can build the houses our city requires. 

In addition, the Met Police also own a significant amount of disposable land in London and yet no new homes have been built on it in 2018 or 2019.

The Mayor is responsible for the building of homes and it is clear that much more can be done. Tony added, “I have consistently urged the Mayor to act decisively and increase the construction of homes.”