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Ken Livingstone wants all new affordable housing to be environmentally friendly
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All new affordable homes constructed in London will soon have to be state-of-the-art environmentally friendly buildings, Mayor Ken Livingstone pledged today.
Mr Livingstone, who is set to take control of a £1.7 billion government budget for subsidising public housing, said future homes would have to be as close to carbon-neutral as possible.
He told a conference in New York organised by former US president Bill Clinton that once he gets the powers - which must first be approved by Parliament - no more non-green public sector homes would be built in London.
"I intend to bring the architects and the housing association people in and say we're not going to allocate that money to any new home for construction that isn't absolutely state of the art," Mr Livingstone said.
"It may not be possible to be absolutely carbon neutral but it's going to be as close as possible.
"I'm not interested in subsiding any housing that adds to the problem.
"If you want a commitment from me at this conference it's that that three billion dollars won't subsidise another polluting public sector home in London."
Copyright Press Association 2006.
