Goldsmith: I'll end 'backroom' affordable housing deals

The Conservative candidate to be the next mayor of London made the comments this morning, at the launch of a report by the London Housing Commission into solving the housing crisis in the capital.

Promising to increase output to 50,000 homes per year if he is elected mayor, Mr Goldsmith said communities had been left feeling isolated by developers’ reluctance to provide affordable homes.

He said: “London needs a new deal with developers. Few would disagree that the current viability process is broken.

“We need a workable solution. As mayor, I will provide a more transparent viability process and an end to backroom deals between local authorities and developers.”

Under rules introduced by the previous coalition government, developers can reduce affordable housing planning obligations by demonstrating through ‘viability tests’ that their profits would be affected.

The tests have been controversial, with campaigners and councils claiming developers use artificially low estimates to reduce the amount of affordable housing they build.

Mr Goldsmith rejected Labour rival Sadiq Khan’s proposal for a city-wide target of 50% affordable housing, claiming that would lead to “construction grinding to a halt”.

Speaking at the same event, Mr Khan said he would retain the freehold on public land which was put forward for development to allow City Hall to increase the amount of affordable housing built and retain an income stream going forward.

Both candidates were speaking at the launch of thinktank IPPR’s London Housing Commission report, which recommended a new ‘City deal’ for London to allow the next mayor to tackle the housing crisis.

Speaking at the event the committee’s chair, Lord Bob Kerslake, said: “It was abundantly clear to the commission that the powers available are simply insufficient to meet the scale of the challenge.”