Property industry reviews Sadiq Khan’s first 100 days

Property industry reviews Sadiq Khan's first 100 days



Sadiq Khan still has a long way to go to live up to his pre-election promise of solving London’s housing problems, according to experts working in the property industry.


The mayor of London recently celebrated his first 100 days in the role after defeating Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith in May.

Since his election victory, Mr Khan has announced a number of changes to housing policy in the capital along with approving and throwing out proposals for major developments.

In June, Mr Khan revealed plans to limit the conversion of office space into residential units through permitted development rights, while he has also encouraged London property investors not to panic despite the Brexit vote.

Some London councils have been critical of Mr Khan’s planning policy after he decided not to intervene in the AFC Wimbledon mixed development project, despite refusing the development of another London football stadium early in his term.

Meanwhile, in August, he approved the Old Oak development in west London, which is expected to boost the number of affordable homes in the capital, while he has also ordered Transport for London to free up unused land for development.

Property experts have now told Development Finance Today how they rate Mr Khan’s first 100 days as mayor of London.

"I think it's too early to make any meaningful judgement regarding Sadiq Khan's progress on the housing issue,” commented Bob Sturges, head of PR and communications at Fortwell Capital.

“It's going to take a lot longer than 100 days to make any real difference given the scale and scope of the problem.”

Ashley Ilsen, head of lending at Regentsmead, felt that Mr Khan’s biggest challenge was his promise to have 50% affordable housing on new developments.

“While in principle this is a good idea, it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out in practice.

“One idea that's been mooted are estate regeneration schemes which look at old housing estates with huge inefficiencies and rebuilds them with a new modern and efficient design, while keeping the existing communities in place.

“Nonetheless, this is only the case in some isolated instances, and on the whole it looks like he's going to struggle to meet these targets.”

Rico Wojtulewicz, policy adviser at the National Federation of Builders, also raised concerns over Mr Khan’s pre-election pledges.

“So far mayor Khan has announced a ‘Homes for Londoners’ board and that TfL will be selling land for affordable homes.

“Neither measure has immediately stimulated supply.

“A lack of market competition has created London’s affordability problems and mayor Khan needs to address that as a priority.

“This means building on small sites and infill, and encouraging the employment of local developers, such as SMEs and housing associations.”

Ashley also questioned the mayor’s proposed flat rate of 35% affordable homes on all private developers in London.

“A proposed flat rate of 35% on all private developers in London is going to become a huge hindrance on developer's profits and I don't see how the shortfall will be made up by public sector schemes to take this up to the targeted 50%.

“I suspect that Sadiq Khan’s pledge of reaching this 50% [target] was a good pre-election gambit and successful door opener to City Hall. However, I think he's fully aware that in practice it is a very unrealistic target.”

However, Bob concluded: “…Politics aside, the London mayor does appear to have focused on the issue in a more serious way than his predecessors.

“Whether he can translate this into concrete results remains to be seen.”



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