Pro-Building Group Urges Labour To Keep Bigger London Housing Target

A pro-housing group is urging the Government to consider keeping the London housing target at 100,000 a year, rather than go ahead with plans to lower it to 80,000.

PricedOut, a non-partisan campaign group for affordable homes, was established in 2006 with the aim of urging ministers to increase housing supply. 

It has largely welcomed the new Labour Government's attempt to increase housebuilding and reform the planning system, which was at the heart of the party's election-winning manifesto. 

The group said it was “absolutely right” Labour had reinstated mandatory targets and was prepared to undo “the destructive weakening of targets” under the previous Conservative administration. It said this was vital in “once again making sure that local authorities have to deliver sufficient homes".

However, PricedOut has submitted a response to the National Planning Policy Framework — which sets out the Government’s planning policies — urging ministers to revise their decision to cut the housing target for London by 20 per cent.

The group called on activists who want to keep the target of 100,000 homes in the capital to support their efforts by also writing to the NPPF.

Freddie Poser, Executive Director at PricedOut, told PoliticsHome he was “really excited” to see the Government’s ambition on solving the housing crisis, in particular by raising the national annual target to 370,000.

But he said the capital needed to form a bigger part of Labour’s plans for addressing the property deficit across the country, and that cutting the figure was a “mistake”.

“The UK’s most unaffordable city, London, particularly needs to be a part of Labour’s ambitions to tackle the housing crisis. The new housing needs assessment reduces the target for London