Thursday 07 February 2019 12:48 am | Updated: Monday 03 June 2019 1:40 am

Sadiq Khan ‘falling short’ on housing after new home registrations fall by 10 per cent

London mayor Sadiq Khan has been accused of "falling short" on housing targets after it emerged that new home registrations in London dropped 10 per cent last year to just over 16,000.

There were 16,069 new home registrations in 2018, down from 17,932 the year before, according to the National House Building Council (NHBC), a warranty and insurance provider for new homes in the UK whose statistics provide an indication of the health of the market.

The NHBC said the private housing market was "bearing the brunt of the continuing political and economic uncertainties" while Khan blamed the government for a dip in housebuilder confidence.

Andrew Boff, member of the London Assembly which scrutinises the mayor, said: “Before he was elected, the mayor said that delivering affordable housing would be his number one priority. Yet Khan has consistently failed to reach his own housing targets and these new figures show that he continues to fall short.

“It is clear that the mayor’s deeply flawed housing policies are preventing developers from building the homes that Londoners are crying out for.

“Despite the government giving Sadiq Khan a £5bn grant to get London building, the mayor has simply failed to deliver time after time. Londoners who dream of owning their own home deserve a mayor who has the competence and drive to deliver for them”.

Last November, the London Assembly housing committee’s annual monitor of Khan's housing pledges claimed he was failing to meet his targets on affordable home starts, with work starting on only 12,555 affordable homes up until 31 March 2018, towards the bottom of his range for the 2017/2018 financial year.

City Hall claimed this is the highest level of affordable starts since responsibility for affordable housing funding was devolved to the mayor.

Responding to the decline in London home registrations, James Murray, deputy mayor for housing and residential development said: “Sadiq is responsible for building new social and genuinely affordable homes and has beaten every single target set by ministers – starting a record number of both last year.

“The government is responsible for the drop in private development, with years of over-reliance on big private developers building luxury homes. This has been made worse, as the NHBC themselves confirm, by the government’s chaotic mishandling of Brexit.”

Nationally, the number of new homes registered to be built by the UK's housebuilders last year was in line with 2017 figures.

Developers registered 159,617 new homes with NHBC over the year, a 0.5 per cent decrease on the 160,396 in 2017. The private sector was down one per cent to 117,497 in 2018, from 118,372 the previous year.

New home completions for the year were also stable, up 1 per cent from 147, 552 in 2017 to 149,480 in 2018.

NHBC chief executive Steve Wood said: “The full-year figures of nearly 160,000 new home registrations demonstrate the resilience of the UK house-building industry. 2018 has been a demanding year, with the extreme weather conditions in the early part and the continuing political and economic uncertainties, which are extending into 2019. Whatever the environment, NHBC will continue to support housebuilders to deliver the high-quality, new homes that the country needs.”