Jones issued the document, focused on lowering rents, protecting tenants and ending rough sleeping, during a visit to Dora House in St. John’s Wood, a sheltered scheme managed by Central and Cecil housing association.
Jones said: “London is facing a housing crisis that decision-makers have been only too willing to ignore.
“We want to change the housing market from a playground for speculative investment to a source of secure, affordable homes.
“If we are to ensure that residents of the capital can house their families and themselves, slow the continuous rent increases, reduce homelessness and end the insecurity that many tenants suffer, then City Hall must act decisively.”
Homeless in England increased 36% between October and December 2012 according to recent figures, and charity Shelter has highlighted a ‘desperate shortage of affordable homes for Londoners’.
The 10-point plan manifesto pledges to build at least 15,000 affordable new homes a year, and refurbish over a million to help reduce energy bills.
Jones also commits to reduce rents and provide greater security for private tenants through five-year contracts and the establishment of an ethical lettings agency.
Kate Dodsworth, assistant director at the National Housing Federation, said: “The decisions of the successful candidate could make the difference between deepening crisis and housing recovery. The next mayor should make the GLA’s land available, for free, for housing associations to ensure Londoners get the right homes, in the right places, for the right prices.”
In the document Jones also commits to:
• Help families by making sure 40% of new homes are family-sized
• Help cooperatives build more homes by establishing a London Mutual Housing Company and helping to set-up Community Land Trusts
• End rough sleeping and ensure no one has to spend more than one night on the streets by centralising money for homelessness services in London
• Campaign against government attacks on housing
• Campaign for reform, including land value taxation and a ban on foreign investors
Read the full Housing Manifesto.