The Land for Council Homes Revenue Fund — which aims to help councils ramp up their housing delivery programmes over the next decade — enables boroughs to use up to £400,000 to unlock land for projects. 

Allowing all London boroughs to bid for financing, the fund will also aid in training their in-house housing, planning and regeneration teams.

Funds can also be requested to boost existing council housing teams’ skillsets or to bring in expert help to pinpoint, buy and develop land for new council homes. 

Khan — who has been behind the highest level of council homebuilding since the 1970s — is asking boroughs to think out of the box in order to use the funding to promote local equality, diversity and inclusion outcomes. 

“I’m proud that we’re reversing years of decline to create a renaissance in council homebuilding and are once again seeing these homes return to every corner of our city,” he said.

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Khan added that councils are building homes on a scale that hasn’t been witnessed in decades and have had to recreate their housing delivery teams with restricted backing from central government.
 
“I’m determined that we do all we can to build on the success of recent years, empowering councils and working with all those involved in constructing new council homes to help build a safer, fairer, greener, and more prosperous city for all Londoners,” said the mayor. 

Cllr Darren Rodwell, London Councils’ executive member for regeneration, housing and planning, commented: “The chronic shortage of council housing is a key factor in London’s homelessness crisis — the most severe in the country and undoubtedly among the most pressing challenges the capital faces.
 
“Giving boroughs the powers and resources we need to build new homes will bring real benefits to our communities.”

The new fund is a direct acknowledgement of City Hall’s ‘Building London’s Future: The Next Generation of Council Homes’ report published in 2020. 

The research looked into how local authorities could bolster local housing development programmes over the next 10 years and recognised several major barriers councils faced. 

Left unaddressed, the challenges could constrain future delivery ambitions, the report noted. 

Last year, local authorities started work on the largest number of new council homes in London since 1979. 

The resurgence has been driven by initiatives like Khan’s Building Council Homes for Londoners programme and Homebuilding Capacity Fund.

Only eight boroughs had active council homes projects underway when the homebuilding schemes were launched in 2018, however that number has now climbed to 30 within the last year. 
 
The mayor is eager to support bold projects that move beyond estate regeneration and infill sites, which could include picking out industrial, retail or office space owned by councils for residential conversion. 

The idea of multiple councils working together on large-scale projects that cross borough boundaries, with joint proposals able to receive up to £750,000, is also being considered. 

Khan is also particularly keen to assist boroughs with plans to scale up their housebuilding programmes over the next 10 years, but may not have suitable council-owned land to deliver against this ambition.