HOUSING AND HOME OWNERSHIP
Housing is where mayoral power is real but partial. The Mayor writes the London Plan, controls the Affordable Homes Programme, holds land, and can call in strategic applications. The Mayor does not make landlord and tenant law, does not allocate social housing, and does not regulate mortgages. This chapter is honest about which is which. And it is unashamed in its aim: a property-owning democracy, in which every Londoner who works hard can realistically hope to own the home they live in.
7.1 The end of leasehold
The problem
Leasehold is a form of ownership that is not ownership. A leaseholder buys the right to occupy a home for a diminishing period, pays a freeholder for permission to alter it, pays service charges they cannot effectively challenge, and watches the value of the asset fall as the term shortens. When the lease requires extension, the cost is set by a statutory formula that transfers substantial value to a freeholder who has done nothing to earn it. For a party that believes in genuine ownership, this is indefensible.
London holds a disproportionate share of England’s leasehold flats. This is a London problem more than it is a national one, and the Mayor of London should be leading the argument.
The commitment
- Leasehold reform completed and commonhold made the default, so that Londoners own their homes outright.Leasehold is governed by primary legislation. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 is partly commenced and further reform is live national policy. This is a campaign with momentum, not a standing start.
- The full weight of this office used to lobby ministers to end leasehold and leasehold tenancies in London for good.Leasehold is created by primary legislation, so ending it requires Parliament. As Mayor I will use the platform and the standing of this office — the largest personal mandate in the country outside the Prime Minister — to press ministers directly and publicly to abolish leasehold tenancies and make commonhold the default across London. I will report on that campaign honestly, including where it stalls. Amber because the power to legislate is not mine; the power to make the argument relentlessly, from the city that holds most of England’s leasehold flats, is.
The campaign is amber. What follows is green, and it is what separates a manifesto commitment from a slogan.
- Commonhold or share of freehold made a condition of every pound of mayoral grant funding.Applied from day fifty. Any developer taking GLA housing investment delivers commonhold. No legislation required.
- Commonhold made a condition of planning consent on all mayoral development land and in all applications called in by the Mayor.Applied through the London Plan and mayoral call-in powers.
- Ground rent and service charge standards written into the London Plan.Binding on borough local plans, which must conform to the London Plan.
- Service charge transparency data published across London, service by service, block by block.So that leaseholders can see what comparable buildings pay. Indicative cost: four million pounds annually including advice services.
- Funded impartial advice services for leaseholders facing extension, enfranchisement or service charge disputes.Included in the figure above.
The effect of these measures is that within one term every new home built with mayoral money or mayoral consent in London is a home the buyer actually owns. That is a structural change to the London housing market delivered entirely within the powers of this office, while the national campaign proceeds alongside it.
7.2 Empty homes
London has a substantial stock of long-term vacant dwellings while families sit in temporary accommodation. Bringing these homes back into use is slower and less glamorous than building new ones, and it is considerably faster than building new ones.
- London’s empty homes brought back into use for the homeless, for people on low incomes, for students, and as safe homes for people recovering from addiction.Register compiled with every borough within fifty days. Acquisitions and lease arrangements begin immediately. Indicative cost: forty million pounds annually.
7.3 Building and buying
The surest route to affordable homes is to build more of them. A Mayor gets Britain building in London by backing the developers who deliver and refusing to reward those who sit on consent and trade land.
- Stimulus for residential projects with realistic prospects of completion.Directed at schemes that will actually be built rather than schemes that will be traded. Indicative cost: provisionally five hundred million pounds annually.
- On-site housing built for London’s school teachers, nurses and police officers.Delivered on GLA and TfL land. Indicative capital: one hundred and eighty million pounds across the term.
- A five per cent deposit scheme for lower-income first-time buyers.Eligibility set by household income and first-time buyer status. Indicative cost: one hundred and twenty million pounds across the term.
7.4 Renting
- A reformed tenancy settlement protecting tenants and responsible landlords alike.Landlord and tenant law is reserved. The Mayor operates the London-wide rogue landlord and agent checker directly and will expand it.
- Lawful and consistent social housing allocation across every borough.Allocation is a borough function under the Housing Act 1996. Local connection criteria are lawful and already used. The Mayor will press for consistency through funding conditions.