Blakeway to join Number 10 as housing advisor

Mr Blakeway, who has been Boris Johnson’s deputy mayor for housing since 2008, will report to Camilla Cavendish, the head of the Number 10 Policy Unit and will start just before Mr Johnson leaves office ahead of May’s election.

Mr Johnson said: “Richard’s tremendous hard work at City Hall has resulted in a record 100,000 affordable homes being delivered in London over my two terms and the release of 414 hectares of Greater London Authority-acquired land for development.

“Richard will be a real asset to the prime minster and I congratulate him on his new appointment at Number 10.”

It is understood that Alex Morton, the current Downing Street advisor on housing, will leave his current role. However it is unclear what his new position will be.

Mr Blakeway has previously criticised aspects of government housing policies, including the ambition to build 200,000 Starter Homes by 2020.

Along with Mr Johnson, he has cautioned that requirements on councils to support Starter Homes could risk crowding out other forms of tenure, such as shared ownership.

Inside Housing also revealed in September that he was offering to build around 15,000 extra homes a year in London in order to secure a ringfence around the receipts from the forced sale of council homes.