G15 urges housing secretary to ramp up social housing investment

The letter said that data also shows that these associations have cut development in and outside London from 14,658 units a year to 6,387 in 2024. Social Housing has requested clarification on whether the periods referred to are the financial year or calendar year.

Only 35 per cent of planned new homes are in London, a 50 per cent drop from 70 per cent of new starts last year.

Ms Fletcher-Smith and Ms Jennings called for the housing secretary to increase government investment in social housing, building 90,000 social homes a year across England, including 30,000 in London.

They said that £15.1bn a year should be committed to the Affordable Homes Programme, using 10-year terms to provide investment stability.

The G15 and Centre for London said that Mr Gove should work with the mayor of London to set up development corporations to build on “strategically defined areas of the green belt, compensating for any loss of nature”.

One estimate suggests that almost 900,000 new homes could be accommodated on just 25,000 hectares of green belt land within walking distance of train stations well-connected to central London, according to the letter.

Ms Fletcher-Smith and Ms Jennings also called for an end to what they called “the short-termism that has dominated housing policy”, by creating an expert body, the Affordable Housing Commission.

They said this should set housebuilding targets aligned with the best evidence and hold government accountable to deliver them.

“We welcome your call to ensure the Renters (Reform) Bill is passed through parliament this year, as well as your commitment to end no-fault evictions,” the letter said.

“Additionally, reform that accelerates building on brownfield sites is necessary. However, an expansion of capacity to deliver homes by 11 per cent does not meet the scale of need.

“Your recent interventions do not go far enough to address what, by your own admission, is a broken system. The issues plaguing the current housing market go back decades and have been entrenched by short-term fixes.

“Despite the crisis facing Londoners, the government has failed to step up and invest in the delivery of social housing. Insufficient sustainable funding, among many structural issues, is a critical reason why housing is in crisis in our capital city.”

Last week, the government told councils in England that they “must prioritise” brownfield development, as it launched two new policy consultations.