Old Bexley and Sidcup MP Louie French today secured a debate on housebuilding in London, warning the Government not to grant Sadiq Khan more planning powers.
He said: "Why should Sadiq Khan, who has comprehensively failed to get London building, be given more powers? As I have outlined, his London plan has made it too difficult and complicated to build in London, and as a result, Londoners face higher rents and unaffordable housing prices. Now he wants to build on the green belt, while brownfield sites near tube stations sit empty. This is completely unacceptable.
"Sadiq Khan and the Labour Party may boast about their housebuilding record, but the reality is that four-fifths of the homes that were built in London last year received planning permission under Boris Johnson.
"The same is true of the majority of homes that were started last year—they were approved under Boris Johnson, not Sadiq Khan. We are nine years into Sadiq Khan’s mayoralty, and his predecessor is still building or unlocking more homes than he is.
"The answer is not to build on the green belt, and it is not to let houses in multiple occupation conversions run wild or to take more powers away from local communities. It is to make it easier and cheaper to build in London again, and that means scrapping Sadiq Khan’s failed planning policies. Home ownership should be a dream that is open to everyone, but in Sadiq Khan’s London, it is frankly not. It is a moral imperative that the Government step in to fix his mistakes."
