Boris sets out plan to move 8,000 tenants 'under-occupying' homes

Published by Ross Macmillan for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Communities, Local Government

London's mayor, Boris Johnson, has published a revised housing strategy that he says will "harness creativity" to increase housing supply in the capital and "offer greater choice and mobility for all Londoners".

The document sets out London's strategic development for the next 10 years and includes plans to tackle under-occupied social housing by tasking social landlords with producing an under-occupation audit and delivering a target of 8,000 moves by tenants in homes with more bed spaces than people living in them.

The mayor has also put forward plans to deliver 13,200 affordable home completions annually and to provide more than 17,000 First Step homes by 2015, with greater priority given to tenants from the armed forces in these properties.

Additional proposals include:

:: ensuring no more than 1% of homes stand empty and unused for more than six months

:: ensuring that new homes will be built to higher design standards that are incorporated into the contracts with partners delivering new affordable homes

:: the mayor taking responsibility for the allocation and monitoring of Decent Homes funding in London, when new housing and regeneration powers come into effect in April 2012

:: establishing at the GLA a directorate charged with overseeing housing and regeneration

The document has been criticised by the mayor's political opponents, who have argued that the supply of new homes needs to be greater.

Jenny Jones, Green Party London Assembly said: "The mayor's proposals will only see the housing crisis get worse. He knows he can't build enough homes to make ownership any more affordable, nor can he deliver secure social housing for the hundreds of thousands of low income households trapped on the waiting lists.

"He isn't offering any new ideas to help private tenants suffering from record high rents, nor anything new to reverse the rise in homelessness he has previously predicted."

Writing in the Guardian, Nicky Gavron, Labour's spokesperson for housing and planning in the Assembly, said: "The small print reveals that his target of 32,210 new homes every year is almost 2,700 below the figure the plan itself claims is needed. The planning inspector who assessed Johnson's plans found that London actually needs between 34,900 to 37,400 homes a year - way above the mayor's target.

"The greatest need in London is for new, social rented homes. With rising rents and homelessness, 360,000 households on London's waiting lists and 750,000 people living in overcrowded conditions, that need is acute. This is where the mayor's ideology trumps what the evidence says is needed."

Assembly members have until the end of October to respond to the strategy before it goes to public consultation later in the year.

The communities and local government Secretary Eric Pickles will be presented with the final draft for his consideration in the middle of 2012.

Copyright Press Association 2011