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£1.7bn deal to bring 50,000 affordable homes to London amid criticism of Khan's housing record

An extra 50,000 affordable homes will be built in the capital over the next four years following a £1.7bn deal with London councils and housing associations that City Hall is a describing as a ‘record’.

The commitment, which the Mayor’s office says represents a trebling of the amount Boris Johnson secured in his final call for bids in 2014, comes amid Tory criticism of Sadiq Khan’s housing record in his first year in office.

According to today’s announcement, 49,398 affordable homes will be built across all 32 boroughs and in the City of London delivered by a 44 housing providers and nine councils.

Of the total, 32,000 will be a combination of the London Living Rent and Shared Ownership with a further 17,500 available for rents around ‘social levels’. Meanwhile, City Hall claim that sites for almost half of the 50,000 homes have already been bought meaning construction can get underway immediately.

The deal was hailed by the Mayor as a ‘City Hall record’ for the number of homes secured for funding in any single funding round, and combined with the 30,000 affordable homes already in place will help the City Hall meet Khan’s target of starting construction of 90,000 affordable homes by 2021.

Following the announcement, Khan said: “We know that solving the housing crisis is not going to happen overnight, but I very much welcome so many housing associations and councils matching my ambition by committing to build the new and genuinely affordable homes Londoners so desperately need.

“I am delighted that we have set a City Hall record for the number of homes allocated funding - but I am clear that we have got much more to do to secure the land we need to build homes and ensure we have sufficient capacity in the construction industry.”

The announcement comes after Andrew Boff, who is housing spokesman for the GLA Conservatives, slammed the Mayor’s house building record after figures showed construction had started on just 17,130 homes in the second half of 2016 and first half of 2017.

In quotes reported by City AM, Boff said: “Sadiq Khan made some outlandish housing delivery claims during his election campaign but the proof is in the pudding.”

However, Khan’s spokesperson rebuffed Tory criticism and claimed that Londoners know that the capital’s housing crisis would not be solved overnight.

They said: “Londoners know that turning round the housing crisis won’t happen overnight, and these figures confirm the legacy of falling homebuilding and low levels of affordable housing that Sadiq inherited from the previous mayor.”