Ken's plan is a capital cop-out

The newly launched London Plan misses the opportunity to tackle the capital's housing crisis ("Corporation and GLA confident of meeting new targets in Livingstone's plan", 13 February, page 8).

For a start, just how genuine is mayor Ken Livingstone's revised target of an additional 30,000 homes a year?

His intention to monitor this target against a 23,000 benchmark would indicate that he is merely paying lip service to the Examination in Public panel's recommendations and the need to meet London's rising housing demand.

With the backlog of social housing now at 112,000 homes and the need for houses growing at a rate of 22,400 per year, Livingstone really must demonstrate proper commitment to providing at least 30,000 homes a year.

Also, how exactly will the mayor achieve this target considering only half that number has been built annually since 2000/1?

The London Plan includes no detail on this and his track record so far inspires me with no confidence: for example, the number of officially homeless families across London has grown by 14,000 since his election.

Livingstone has failed to tackle the problem and instead has imposed "aspirational" figures without proper consultation with all the organisations involved. This is not enough. What is needed is a proactive coordinated campaign to tackle London's housing crisis.

The London Assembly Liberal Democrats believe the mayor should be getting developers, landowners, boroughs, central government and housing associations together to deliver a constructive housing programme.

Everyone needs to be on board from the start, rather than have arbitrary targets imposed on them.