A new report byLondon Green Party Assembly Member Darren Johnson claims that the Mayor of London’s housing policies are benefitting investor landlords more than London’s residents, leading to five negative consequences:
- two thirds of new homes are now bought by investors, leaving most Londoners with little choice but a lifetime of insecure renting
- housing wealth trickles into a smaller number of hands, including people who don’t even live in the homes they buy
- homes are unnecessarily demolished, pushing low income Londoners out
- residents are trampled on, rather than being empowered as the Mayor says he wants
- very little affordable housing is built, leading to a severe social housing shortage
The report compiles case studies of new housing developments, and argues that the Mayor needs to radically change housing policy in London to solve the crisis.
Darren Johnson commented:
“The Mayor is championing the interests of investors over residents. He is so desperate to stoke up demand for his regeneration projects that he is blind to the downsides. But Londoners are seeing more and more luxury flats bought up by buy-to-let landlords and overseas investors, leaving them to make do with the crumbs from the feast.
“We can’t solve our housing problems just by hoping developers will build more homes, and we won’t make them affordable by stoking up demand from every corner of the globe. The Mayor should champion social housing, stabilising rent controls and controls on investors to tip the scales in favour of residents.”