Mayor’s boasting a fantasy while Londoners struggle with the reality of housing, says Southwark Lib Dem leader

This morning, Sadiq Khan touted his record on house building as a “golden era of council homes” in an interview on Sky News and said on Twitter that he had “smashed the government’s target” of starting 116,000 affordable homes.

However, Cllr Chamberlain has pointed out that only 17.6% of the homes built in Southwark during his tenure as mayor were social or affordable rent.

In response to the Mayor’s announcements, Cllr Chamberlain, leader of the Southwark Liberal Democrats, said:

“The mayor’s comments this morning are insulting to the millions of Londoners struggling to find affordable, good quality housing. The reality here in Southwark is that only 17.6% of the houses built in Sadiq’s tenure were social or affordable rent, while the housing waiting list has rocketed to over 17,000. In the meantime, thousands are forced into unaffordable and often inadequate private rental sector.

Since Labour took over Southwark council, we have lost over 2,000 council homes and have the highest number of vacant dwellings. That will not strike anyone as a record to be proud of.

The picture is the same across the capital. Communities are disappearing all over London as council homes are replaced by unaffordable properties for the rich. Sadiq Khan needs to get out there and speak to the people in his city. Maybe then he’d understand this is no time to pat himself on the back, this is just the start.”