Sadiq Khan: 'We've all got to do better on housing'

Transcript

00:00we can't run away from the fact there were these macro issues affecting housing.

00:04And that's why it's so welcome to have a pro-housing, pro-growth government come into

00:10our... They're the cavalry, if you like, arriving to help London. Why? Having a target of 1.5 million

00:17homes makes it quite clear to councils and to planning officers the expectation, you've got

00:23to say yes, otherwise the government will take over. But also, developers know you've got

00:26a government setting these big, big ambition targets. The last time we built, the government's

00:31got a target of 88,000 homes a year. 1934. 1934 was the last time we built more than 80,000 homes.

00:38That's the sort of scale of house building required. But I'm the first to admit,

00:42supplies don't meet demand. We've got to do better, and we're going to do better with the

00:46support of national government, councils, but also with some foreign investment. I think the issue

00:52is the macro issues I explained in relation to house building in London. We had, when I became

00:58mayor, Brexit. We then had the pandemic. We then had the consequence of a hard Brexit. We then had

01:06Putin's invasion of Ukraine. Notwithstanding all that, we've achieved a remarkable amount,

01:12even though the government's not been pro-London. Now I've got a pro-London government, and I'm

01:17saying to developers and investors, talk to us. My deputy mayor for planning is here every year,

01:22but Jools meets regularly developers, as does Tom Copley and Howard Dilbert, the business and

01:28housing deputy mayor, respectively, as indeed do I. It's really important to give people confidence,

01:33which we're getting now from the prime minister, the chancellor.