Boris announces £1bn plan to build thousands of London homes

London Mayor Boris Johnson has announced a £1bn plan to build 45,000 low cost homes in the capital.

Part of George Osborne’s £3bn affordable housing settlement for 2015-18, the project also boasts a new target of building 42,000 homes a year for the next 10 years. This would be the the highest rate since the 1930s.

Of these 42,000 homes, 15,000 will be affordable and a further 5,000 will be built for the private rented sector.

Johnson also plans to launch a £160m housing bank to speed up development and expand the First Steps scheme from 50,000 to 250,000 Londoners over the next decade.

“Since the election in May last year I have fulfilled my pledges and released £3bn worth of public land for development – the equivalent of 210 football pitches – but we must respond to the scale of demand, the demographic pressure revealed by the 2011 census and that is why it is right that we are launching a new strategy today to up the pace,” Johnson said.

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