"Bitterly disappointing" - Mike Tuffrey slams Mayor for failing to deliver affordable homes for Londoners

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 21st May 2009

Mike Tuffrey, the Liberal Democrat London Assembly housing spokesman, commenting on the Mayor's draft housing strategy published today said:

"It is bitterly disappointing that after seven months of negotiation we discover that the Mayor has fallen so far short of his key pledge he made to Londoners.

"A year ago the Mayor promised that he would actually deliver 50,000 more affordable homes within three years. The Mayor has not even reached an agreement for half of the new homes he promised would be built.

"We need a Mayor who's prepared to be the Teddy Roosevelt of housing - speaking softly to the boroughs but carrying a big stick too. Boris Johnson needs to tell boroughs he'll take over planning their large sites and use the £5 billion he has at his disposal to get house building moving."

ENDS

Notes to editors:

1. Boris Johnson's Housing Manifesto Building a Better London contained the pledge to:

'Work with the boroughs to build 50,000 more affordable homes by 2011." (page 2)

"Work closely with borough councils to deliver 50,000 new affordable homes by 2011, replacing the 50:50 split with a unit target agreed with each borough council." (page 6)

2. Boris Johnson's Housing Manifesto also highlighted how TfL and LDA could be used to provide houses:

"The TfL Property Development Strategy team have identified surplus land on which some 7,000 residential homes could be built." (page 9)

"The LDA owns 318 hectares of surplus land suitable for residential development which they estimate would provide 32,000 new homes." (page 10).

3. The Mayor's London Housing Strategy states:

"Since November the Mayor has agreed targets with 21 boroughs to deliver a total of 23,154 affordable homes over the period.." (page 23)