London Mayor Boris Johnson has announced a £225 million package to help families on middle or lower incomes get on the housing ladder in the capital.
London newspaper the Evening Standard reports that the funding will be used for two shared ownership schemes in London, with an initial £180m fund for new homes in London for those who are not able to buy their own home outright with a mortgage, but who wish to own some equity in their home. It is anticipated that the funding will enable 4,000 new homes to be built in London by 2020.
However, recent figures show that the population of London is growing at levels not seen before after WWII. On the eve of the outbreak of war in September 1939, London’s population stood at around 8.6m people. Recent estimates have predicted that by 2030, London’s population will have grown to 10m – and 42,000 new homes in the capital will have to be built every year to keep pace with the growing population.
Statisticians have predicted that within the next few weeks, a new record for the population of London will be set – and are predicting the baby who will set a new population record will be born in a maternity unit in outer London, where the population is growing more rapidly.
As well as housebuilding, the London Assembly is awarding housing association Gentoo £45m to pioneer a shared ownership scheme dubbed a “home purchase plan” in which buyers buy their home over a 30-year period and make monthly payments without needing a deposit and mortgage.
On a visit to Bexley on Monday (05/01/15), Boris Johnson said:
“Shared ownership is crucial in helping the unprecedented numbers of people in London desperate for good quality, low-cost housing.”
The take up of the government’s Help to Buy scheme has been less successful in London and the southeast than in other parts of the country – the average home in London now costs in the region of £500,000 and the upper limit for Help to Buy is £600,000, fuelling intense competition for eligible properties among those who can afford them.
The Mayor said that – because of London’s rapidly growing population – plans should be finalised “to meet the stark needs that will face this city over the next half century”.
The Green Party has, however, criticised the London Mayor’s cuts to London’s affordable housing budget.
Green Party London Assembly Member Darren Johnson said that the Mayor’s loan scheme was “a cover” for the huge cuts to London’s affordable housing budget while he had been in office.
Director of the research group LSE London, Professor Tony Travers, said that substantial investment would be needed in roads railways, hospitals “all the elements that make a city work”.
“Cleary there is not enough investment going into London at the moment,” he added.
Duncan Lewis Housing Solicitors
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For expert legal advice on housing law call Duncan Lewis housing solicitors on 020 7923 4020.