Mayor of London announces 11 new housing zones for the capital
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson has announced 11 new housing zones that will provide 24,554 new homes and “create new neighbourhoods” across the capital.
The Mayor has invested an additional £200m to designate the final 11 zones, which brings the total number planned in London to 31. These zones are estimated to deliver 77,000 new homes, of which 34% will be affordable, along with the regeneration of key town centres, train station hubs and housing estates.
Johnson says: “Meeting the unprecedented demand for housing after 30 years of historic failure to build new homes is a critical issue affecting the capital. That is why I have led an enormous programme of regeneration with my 31 housing zones that will transform communities across London, creating nearly 80,000 new homes, plus new transport hubs and schools.”
The new housing zones are:
The Mayor announced the new housing zones from a new development in Soho, where Barratt Homes and Dolphin Living worked together on a site formerly vacant for 13 years, with a proportion of the homes available at an intermediate rent level, set according to the resident’s income. This means even someone on the London Living Wage (£24,000) can afford a home, with some of the three-bedroom apartments offered at a 75% discount to the open market value.
“These apartments are just some of the 100,000 new affordable homes being delivered over my two mayoral terms. This site forms part of more than 400 hectares of developable land the GLA inherited and which I have now released every inch of, to ensure as many homes as possible are built throughout London.”
Jon Gooding, chief executive of Dolphin Living, says: “We all recognise that there is a growing disconnect between wages within central London, and market rent, and we think it is crucial that we continue to provide good quality rental accommodation for those workers who keep this city alive. It is for this reason that we've sought to ensure that we have new homes to rent at discounts of up to 75% of the market rate, and ones that will be affordable for couples earning the new national living wage.”