On London Extra: Building consensus
Is there a shared pathway through the housing gloom? Plus by-elections in brief, Ruth Ellis and more
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Because almost all news about housing supply in the capital is bad, you won’t be surprised to learn that the Mayor’s Affordable Homes programme has been falling short of its target. London Assembly researchers have found that the 2021-2026 period saw work begin on 14,335 such dwellings, missing an already revised target of between 17,800 and 19,000.
The researchers also tell us that although the total number of “affordable” homes in London rose by a net 8,184 in the financial year 2024-25, the latest City Hall estimate is that the capital needs 45,500 of them each year for the next decade to meet demand. That’s quite a gap.
To cheer you up still further, more than 43,000 affordable homes defined as having been started during the current Affordable Homes Programme and the previous one (2016-2023) are yet to be completed.



