Kerslake to examine London’s housing shortage

19th June 2015

Lord Bob Kerslake is to chair a new London Housing Commission set up to develop a “radical portfolio of solutions” to the capital’s housing crisis. The commission, which will report next March, will seek to develop a plan to double the number of new homes built in London to about 50,000 a year. Lord Kerslake said London was building less than half the homes it needed to sustain its growing population: 18,000 last year against the necessary 49,000. He warned: “Londoners are missing out on opportunities: delaying having families, being forced to rent for longer and many are locked out of home ownership completely”. He also argued that London’s lack of housing was a threat to the capital’s international competitiveness. “If it becomes too expensive to live in London, why would businesses come here?...The place will suffer", he explained.

 (17/06/2015)