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Double London's housebuilding rate, Generation Rent urges mayor



The rate of houses being built in London needs to double according to Generation Rent, which has put this argument to the Mayor of London.


The tenant advocacy group has taken part in an ongoing consultation with the Mayor of London’s office to tackle the capital’s housing crisis.

The government has already set a target of 88,000 homes to be built in London a year as part of its overall aim to reach 1.5 million new homes over this parliament.

Generation Rent supports this, but has made the argument this needs to be doubled to have a better impact.

To deliver this, Generation Rent has highlighted the need to develop on brownfield land and then the green belt around the capital.

With the former, Generation Rent has argued that much of London’s residential land is developed though not dense — consisting of terraced and semi-detached houses — which leaves space for re-utilisation.

“Redeveloping streets of houses as flats would accommodate more people in these popular areas, meaning fewer people would have to move further away from their work, family and friends to find something affordable,” wrote Generation Rent in a statement.

“The people living there currently would need to have a say in any changes to the area — the last government created a law called Street Votes which makes this possible.

“Though renters need a say too — and to be compensated for the disruption (theoretically easy to pay for as all property owners would get a windfall from the redevelopment).”

In terms of the green belt, Generation Rent supports the government’s policy of redesignating such land as ‘grey belt’ which will make it easier to develop.

“Most green belt [land] is intensive farmland with very little environmental value, whose loss would make no noticeable difference to overall food supply,” added Generation Rent.

Elsewhere, the tenants advocacy group has highlighted the need to build more social and affordable homes in the capital as well as supporting the PRS market.

With the latter this involves easing restrictions for HMOs in London and creating more BTR homes due to home ownership challenges faced by Londoners.



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