On London Extra: Hope for Housing?

Dare we look on the bright side? Plus Met latest, ULEZ latest, Mayor latest, dates for your diary and bits of joy.

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I'm told I own a house in London thanks to Nigella’s dad. What was dubbed “the Lawson Boom” of the 1980s – courtesy of the late Nigel, not his culinary daughter - ended with a bust that crashed property prices and made it just possible for me to grab a rung on the dreaded ladder and no longer raise a child in a council-licensed squat. It’s an ill wind and all that.
 
More than three decades and five more children later the parental nest is emptying and my wife and I are starting to think about downsizing. Where will we go? What will we need? What will we do with the potentially handsome proceeds from the sale? Luxury indeed.
 
But in the meantime very little has got easier for subsequent generations of Londoners whose lives broadly resemble what mine was when I bought that little terraced house in Homerton – around the age of 30, lacking wealthy parents or a personal fortune and on an average sort of income.
 
On top of that, the supply of what the Mayor calls “genuinely affordable” housing for rent or partial ownership continues to fall far short of demand, and too much of what London has is in poor condition and badly run.
 
Are there glimmers of hope on the horizon? Yes and no.