Transport for London has insisted it’s on course to meet Mayor Sadiq Khan’s affordable homes target despite a report to be presented to its supervisory board next week showing it’s currently more than 20% behind target.
As the largest delivery agency under the mayor’s control, TfL has been tasked with playing a major role in delivering on his manifesto pledge to boost the number of affordable homes available.
Initiatives unveiled to date include the mayor authorising TfL to build more affordable units on selected sites than would be the case under a commercial developer, opening up land to smaller developers and entering partnerships to build homes on “challenging sites” such as car parks.
However a report prepared for the TfL board by transport commissioner Mike Brown shows that despite these efforts just 40% of the homes built by the agency so far this year are affordable, significantly lower than the 53% target.
Despite the report, TfL Commercial Director Graeme Craig said the agency is “on track to exceed our full-year target” and has “a programme that will see 300 acres developed to deliver more than 10,000 homes across London.”
He added: “Our plans and associated timings evolve based on a number of planning and other factors which means that there can be some variation on the rate of delivery during the year.”
