Sadiq Khan quizzed on London crime by Susanna Reid

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Although Mr Khan set targets to build 116,000 homes by 2022 the current mayor has only begun 57,673 in the capital. Such is the rate of the Labour mayor, London Assembly members have accused Mr Khan of wasting the near £5billion worth of grants handed to him by former Prime Minister Theresa May in 2018. Indeed, figures from the Greater London Authority show Boris Johnson completed 62,387 affordable homes in his first five years as mayor.

In contrast, Mr Khan has only completed 34,569 affordable homes in the same period within the 57,673 starts.

Commenting on the figures, Andrew Bott the Conservative Party’s London Assembly spokesperson told City AM: “It’s no sitting on nearly £5bn and patting yourself on the back for breaking ground on a new house.

“Londoners can’t live in a housing start.

“The longer Sadiq Khan takes starting homes, the later they will be completed and ready for Londoners to move in.”

Indeed, such was the low rate of housing delivery, Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick wrote a letter to the mayor calling on greater action for the capital in March.

Mr Jenrick referenced that housing delivery has averaged just 37,000 a year since Mr Khan became mayor.

In terms of Mr Khan’s London plan for housing, Mr Jenrick warned an investigation had found that it is only credible for 52,000 homes a year, short of the identified need of 66,000.

In his letter, Mr Jenrick said: “Your Plan must be brought to the minimum level I would expect to deliver the homes to start serving.

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“Londoners in the way they deserve.

“However, this must be the baseline and given this, I ask that you start considering the next London Plan immediately and how this will meet the higher level and broader housing needs of London.”

When looking at figures between April 2020 to March 2021, Mr Khan had completed 9,051 affordable homes.

The mayor had also begun 13,318, although between 2019 to 2020, 17,256 had been started in London.

However, Mr Johnson set a high of 17,875 completions between 2014 t 2015, a high as mayor.

A mayoral spokesperson said in response: “The mayor has met every one of his affordable housing targets and started work on record-breaking numbers of genuinely affordable homes, including more new council homes than in any year since 1983.

“Affordable housing completions have increased every year under Sadiq from an historic low in the final year of the previous mayoralty.”

Christine Whitehead, professor of housing economics at the London School of Economics (LSE), said the large disparity between Johnson and Khan’s numbers may be because an increased focus on social rent housing in the past five years.

Ahead of winning the mayoral election, Mr Khan set new targets to build 10,000 new council homes in the capital.

He also set a target for 50 percent of all new homes to be affordable while frontline workers will be given priority for new intermediate homes where rent is set below 80 percent of market rates.

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