London needs £150m a year from the government if 50% affordable housing is to be included on new developments.
Mayor Ken Livingstone has pledged to achieve this level of affordable housing and was set to announce that he needed the extra cash as Housing Today went to press this week.

  Livingstone's draft London plan, the capital's spatial development strategy, is to be launched tomorrow.

  The plan comes after consultation proposals requiring that affordable housing provision be broken down into 35% affordable homes for rent and 15% intermediate housing, such as shared ownership or key worker accommodation.

The mayor will argue that this is achievable when 100% affordable developments by housing associations are taken into account.

The overall target for new cross-tenure homes is likely to be 23,000 a year, but this figure would be subject to review in three years' time.

An earlier report by Nottingham Trent University and consultant Three Dragons warned that £6.1bn of public funding will be needed to meet the 50% target outlined by Livingstone, and the London plan is expected to follow up this call.

The plan is believed to favour high-density planning because leading architect Lord Rogers, who is one of Livingstone's advisers, is a great believer in it. Rogers believes densities of 30 to 150 homes per hectare can be achieved through flats and terraced housing.

Strategy for London

  • 23,000 new homes a year.
  • 10,000 of those to be affordable.
  • 10% of new housing to be wheelchair accessible.
  • 50% affordable housing on new developments in two thirds of London boroughs, 35% in the remainder.
  • Affordable housing to be split 35% social rent, 15% ‘intermediate’ such as key-worker accommodation.
  • New homes could be required as part of commercial developments.

Source

Housing Today