London Mayor Sadiq Khan speaks during the From Climate Crisis to Climate Resilience conference. a three-day summit organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the Vatican. Photo: Gregorio Borgia/AP
Sadiq Khan has been reported to the statistics service for allegedly “misleading” the public about the number of houses he has built in London. The Telegraph can tell.
A Conservative group at City Hall has accused the capital's Labor mayor of “gross hypocrisy” over his claims that he has “delivered” 25,000 affordable homes “in the last year alone”, although many have been started but not completed.
< p>Mr Khan was re-elected to an unprecedented third term earlier this month after defeating his Conservative rival Susan Hall.In March, during the mayoral campaign, he wrote an article in which he touted his housing record, claiming that “a record 25,000 truly affordable homes were delivered in the last year alone.”
However, statistics released last week showed the number of affordable homes built in London in the year ending March 31 fell to 3,244 – the lowest since at least 2008-09, when records began.
While the figure topped 25,000 in 2022-23, critics noted that this was due to housing construction rather than home delivery, with many projects years away from completion.
In other cases, existing houses were demolished to make way for construction. new ones, and the mayor is accused of failing to compensate for the figures specified in his demands.
The Conservative group at City Hall has asked Sir Ian Diamond, the head of the UK Statistics Authority, to rule on whether Mr Khan has misused the statistics.
In a letter written by Lord Bailey, the Tories' housing spokesman, states: “I am writing about the Mayor of London's use of housing statistics and the possibility that these figures are materially misleading to the general public.< /p>
“The mayor has regularly stated that he has ‘delivered’ 25,000 affordable homes in the last year alone.” London's transport advertising, endorsed by the Mayor of London, proudly demonstrates that the capital is experiencing a 'golden era' of housing development.”
The letter notes that 3,244 starts in 2023-24 represent a “Recession an 88 per cent increase from 2022-23, when 27,824 affordable homes were built but not completed.”
It adds: “We would therefore like to question whether the Mayor's assertion that that 25,000 houses were “delivered” “last year alone” is a significant misconception.
“Even if we refer to the figures for 2022-2023. , a person cannot live in the “beginning” and the house is not “delivered” if it is still under construction. In some circumstances, the 'start' may be counted before a single brick has been laid.
“We believe that this, coupled with such a sharp fall in the number of new affordable homes actually built in London, makes The mayor's claim that we are living in a “golden era” of housing is extremely disingenuous.
“Given the real need to build more truly affordable homes and give Londoners the best chance of getting on the housing ladder, we believe the Mayor's presentation of figures in this manner is at best unhelpful and at worst fundamentally misleading to the public.
“We welcome your comments on whether this presentation of housing statistics, including in government-funded advertisements, could be considered misleading.”
A spokesman for Mr Khan said: “This is disingenuous nonsense from Lord Bailey, given that he used the exact same platitude. housing terminology he is now complaining about.
“The 25,000 truly affordable homes statistic refers to the 2022-23 published affordable housing statistics. Since Sadiq was first elected in 2016, overall housing construction in London has consistently outpaced the rest of the country, with council house building in the capital reaching levels not seen since the 1970s.
“ The Mayor has set a country-leading target of building 40,000 council homes by the end of the decade, while his Housing Kickstart Fund will help turn stalled development projects into truly affordable homes for Londoners.
“Ministers must now match the Mayor's ambitions and invest in the homes Londoners desperately need as he builds a better, fairer and more prosperous city for everyone.”
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