The specialist bank’s comments come after the mayor of London opened up his housing strategy for consultation with the Homes and Communities Agency.

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The draft strategy revealed that Mr Khan aims to increase the supply of new homes by:

• diversifying the housing sector by increasing funding for self-build, purpose-built and modular developments
• setting clear housing targets for councils
• ensuring homes are affordable to Londoners on average wages with plans for 90,000 new affordable homes by 2021
• identifying and bring forward more land for housing
• improving the skills, capacity and building methods of the construction industry.

Noel Meredith, executive director of United Trust Bank (pictured above), welcomed the proposals and felt that there were thousands of smaller development and redevelopment sites in London that were ideal for SME housebuilders.

“The proposal for a presumption in favour of appropriate residential development on small sites in order to simplify the frequently tortuous planning process would encourage smaller housebuilders to seek out opportunities in areas and markets with which they are familiar and to build homes for local people.

“United Trust Bank is ready, willing and able to support experienced SME developers with the funding they require to build the thousands of new homes London needs.

“We, therefore, hope that mayor Khan will be successful in encouraging the various planning bodies around the city to join forces with smaller housebuilders in tackling London’s housing shortage, rather than seeking to place unnecessary obstacles in their paths.”