Labour Shadow Minister for London, Sadiq Khan MP, has called for local councils to use pension funds to fund house building in their boroughs to help solve the housing crisis.
The shortage of affordable homes across the UK is one of the main issues for all political parties in the run up to the General Election on 7 May.
House building stalled after the 2007 banking crash and subsequent credit crunch in 2008.
The number of new homes being built has never recovered to previous levels – and many local councils have also sold off council properties under Right to Buy, only for the properties to be re-let by the owners at market rents which many families cannot afford.
Mr Khan said that London councils have pensions funds worth around £6 billion, which could be invested in building around 30,000 affordable new homes in the capital, increasing to 120,000 annually as funds grew
He added that Town Hall pension funds in London would rise to an estimated £24bn by 2020.
Mr Khan said that the shortage of affordable homes in London was the biggest challenge his generation of politicians was facing. He added that local councils using their pension funds to build more homes could be “game changing”, however.
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