Sam Richards is CEO of Britain Remade.
Up and down Britain, young people are struggling to get on the housing ladder.
But nowhere is the housing crisis more severe than in London.
Since the 90s, London has seen jobs surge by 62 per cent and its population grow by two million. People from all over Britain and the world, including a third of all England’s immigrants, come to London seeking opportunity, but housebuilding has failed to keep pace.
Many young people move to London to do the right thing; to get a good job, work hard, and make a better life for themselves. But because of our politicians’ failures, today’s young people are frozen out from ever owning their own home.
London’s housing market is so broken that the facts are unbelievable.
Young couples living in the capital earning a normal income and unable to call on the Bank of Mum and Dad can forget about buying their first home.
It will take them an astonishing 30 years to save a deposit to buy the average property in London.
Across the city, house prices have risen to 12.5 times the average income. In Hackney, Haringey, and Islington, prices are 15 times average income.
London is so expensive compared to the rest of England that the rent on a one-bed property in London (£1,276 per month) is more expensive than a three-bed property anywhere else.
The last time house prices were this high relative to the average salary, Queen Victoria was monarch.
For millions of people the dream of owning their own home is dead.
What is so infuriating though is that London was not always unaffordable.
In the mid 1990s when the city blazed a trail at the cutting edge of music, art, and fashion, a couple could save for their first home in just four years. Something that is simply unimaginable these days.
Today young Londoners in good jobs are now forced to choose between lengthy commutes or crowded flatshares because housing supply has not kept up with demand.
Who could possibly think about starting a family while living in a flat with four or five other people?
This has not happened by accident, it is not the unexpected consequence of policy decisions. Politicians of all stripes have chosen not to build enough homes to meet demand.
The only way to fix this is to build more homes.
The next mayoral election is an opportunity for the winner to tackle the capital’s worsening housing crisis head on. Half measures will no longer do.
When it comes to building the houses London needs, the Mayor needs to go big or go home.
That’s why Britain Remade, the pro-growth campaign group I lead, has set out a deliverable plan that could see more than 900,000 energy-efficient homes over the next 15-years.
‘Get London Building’ sets out how the winner of May’s election can build the homes Londoners need by regenerating estates, building in the best connected places, and using land better.
Too many Londoners live in post-war social housing that is cold, damp, and crowded. Estate renewal not only tackles these scourges, but also delivers the extra housing needed for young Londoners to get on the housing ladder.
The capital’s post-war estates were built at densities far lower than many of London’s best-loved historic neighbourhoods, such as Marylebone which is built at more than five times the density of many post-war estates.
Through gentle densification over 530,000 extra homes could be built across the city. On top of this, 540,000 social homes can be rebuilt providing warmer and larger properties for existing council tenants.
Not only will regenerating London’s estates tackle the capital’s extreme housing shortage, it will also save money while helping the country go green. If all new estates are built to the highest energy efficiency standards, the average council tenant would save almost £800 a year in lower gas and electric bills.
Despite the housing crisis raging across our great capital, huge swathes of land are closed off for development by housebuilders.
Industrial land is being protected not because of its environmental value, but for Amazon warehouses, car rental drop-offs, and self-storage facilities.
Why should Amazon get a sweetheart deal when London is crying out for more homes?
Just one of these sites, the Park Royal Industrial Area in Acton could deliver 135,000 new homes.
The status-quo is no longer acceptable, unless our politicians want London to be a place where only the wealthy can afford to buy a home, they need to face the challenge and get London building.