CML news & views

The candidates for London Mayor have published their housing manifestos in advance of the 1 May election. Housing is a key issue in London where elevated house prices have stretched mortgage affordability to the worst levels in the UK. 

In February 2008 the average new mortgage in London was £200,000 which was typically 83% of the property’s value. While the UK average new mortgage was £125,000 which was typically 78% of the property’s value. And the average new borrower in London typically spent 20.3% of their income on mortgage interest payments, and borrowed 3.43 times their income. The UK average new borrower typically spent 18.4% of their income on mortgage payments and borrowed 3.12 times their income. 

The incumbent, Labour’s Ken Livingston has pledged to maintain the policy that half of all new homes should be affordable and to deliver 500,000 new affordable homes by 2011.  

Other key policies include:

• Considering rent-free shared ownership where the housing provider retains a ‘golden share’ in the property and allowing purchasers to acquire smaller shares.
• Private sector and pension fund investment in new shared ownership schemes for those on higher incomes.
• Reducing the number of empty homes to a 2.5% vacancy rate, and supporting enforcement measures including compulsory purchase where home owners are unwilling to co-operate with bringing homes back into use.

A key policy for the Conservative candidate, Boris Johnson, is ‘FirstSteps’ a pilot housing scheme offering homes 20% below the local market rate to those not eligible for the government schemes.

Other policies include:

• Using the surplus GLA land sold to the community land trust to ensure the properties remain affordable.
• Increasing shared ownership schemes for low-income families by a third.
• Investing £60 million on renovating empty properties to bring them back into use as social housing.
• Publishing an online fair rents guide for the private rented sector, and exploring the possibility of a tenant deposit scheme with a guaranteed arbitration period.

Liberal Democrat candidate Brian Paddick plans to divert money currently paid to private landlords to housing associations so they can house families permanently. 

Other policies include:

• Building on publicly owned brownfield sites and enabling the private sector to invest in low-cost affordable rented accommodation.
• Bringing unoccupied homes into use through compulsory purchase.
• Providing help and assistance to free up under-occupied properties to ease the shortfall in larger homes.