Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Khan unveils £100m fund to revive stalled housing projects

The objective of the £100m Housing Kickstart Fund is to revive housing schemes in London that have been stalled due to economic challenges

Khan unveils £100m fund to revive stalled housing projects

London mayor Sadiq Khan has unveiled a £100m Housing Kickstart Fund that will provide grants to housing firms to convert market-rate homes stalled due to economic downturn into affordable homes.

The new money will be made available from recycled capital grant funding, which is money returned to the Greater London Authority GLA by housing providers.


Along with this fund, the mayor has announced a new Accelerated Funding Route, to make it simpler for developers to achieve over 40 per cent of affordable homes on their sites.

This will simplify the methodology to help councils and housing associations calculate how much grants could be applied to execute the projects.

The mayor also plans to utilise City Hall’s existing funding, skills and experience to accelerate the building of homes on brownfield sites. Two sites, in Newham and Southwark, are already benefiting from this new funding.

Nearly 1,450 homes will be delivered by March 2026, and 40 per cent of them will be in the affordable segment.

During Khan's tenure, affordable housing delivery in London has outpaced the rest of the country, and achieved the Government’s target of 116,000 affordable homes.

However, the mayor feels much more needs to be done to fix the city’s decades-long housing crisis.

"London’s housing crisis was decades in the making and won’t be fixed overnight, but I’m determined to do everything in my power to deliver more council and genuinely affordable homes across the capital," he said.

The housing sector in the UK is going through a downturn, with major developers warning that housebuilding may fall to the lowest level since the Second World War.

Fiona Fletcher-Smith, Chair of the G15, a group of London’s leading housing associations, said: “More than 175,000 Londoners are homeless and living in temporary accommodation – equivalent to one in 50 residents of the capital." Hence there is an acute need for affordable housing, she added.

More For You

ve-day-getty

VE Day 80 street parties, picnics and community get togethers are being encouraged to take place across the country as part of the Great British Food Festival. (Photo: Getty Images)

Public invited to attend VE Day 80 procession and flypast

THE 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day will be marked with a military procession in London on May 5.

The event will include over 1,300 members of the Armed Forces, youth groups, and uniformed services marching from Parliament Square to Buckingham Palace.

Keep ReadingShow less
Knife crimes

Knife-enabled crimes include cases where a blade or sharp instrument was used to injure or threaten, including where the weapon was not actually seen.

Getty Images/iStockphoto

Knife crime in London accounts for a third of national total: ONS

KNIFE-RELATED crime in London made up almost a third of all such offences recorded in England and Wales in 2024, with the Metropolitan Police logging 16,789 incidents, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Thursday.

This amounts to one offence every 30 minutes in the capital and represents 31 per cent of the 54,587 knife-enabled crimes reported across England and Wales last year. The total number marks a two per cent rise from 53,413 offences in 2023.

Keep ReadingShow less
Starmer and Modi

Starmer and Modi shake hands during a bilateral meeting in the sidelines of the G20 summit at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Brazil, on November 18, 2024.

Getty Images

Starmer calls Modi over Kashmir attack; expresses condolences

PRIME MINISER Keir Starmer spoke to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi on Friday morning following the deadly attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam region that killed 26 people on Tuesday.

According to a readout from 10 Downing Street, Starmer said he was horrified by the devastating terrorist attack and expressed deep condolences on behalf of the British people to those affected, their loved ones, and the people of India. The two leaders agreed to stay in touch.

Keep ReadingShow less
 Post Office Horizon

A Post Office van parked outside the venue for the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry at Aldwych House on January 11, 2024 in London, England. (Photo: Getty Images)

Getty Images

Post Office spent £600m to keep Horizon despite plans to replace it: Report

THE POST OFFICE has spent more than £600 million of public funds to continue using the Horizon IT system, according to a news report.

Despite deciding over a decade ago to move away from the software, the original 1999 contract with Fujitsu prevented the Post Office from doing so, as it did not own the core software code, a BBC investigation shows.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pahalgam attack: Prayer meet held at Indian mission in London

The prayer meet was led by Indian High Commissioner to the UK Vikram Doraiswami

Pahalgam attack: Prayer meet held at Indian mission in London

Mahesh Liloriya

A PRAYER meet was held at the Gandhi Hall in the High Commission of India in London on Thursday (24) to pay respects to the victims of the Pahalgam terrorist attack.

Chants of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ rang out at the event which was led by Indian High Commissioner to the UK Vikram Doraiswami.

Keep ReadingShow less