This evening the Conservatives will present a motion to Full Council which cynically tries to pit against each other those people who have suffered most under their long period of misrule.
They will try to tell the people of Westminster that there has to be a choice between homes at social rents, and those at intermediate rents. They will omit to say exactly why key workers are struggling to get by – because of their government’s failures.
Now under a Labour administration, we are showing them how they should have acted. By giving residents a say in two estate ballots, we have secured an additional £90m from the Mayor of London to construct new genuinely affordable homes.
With this and other changes, there will be 336 more council homes built in Westminster than under the previous administration. All across the City we are building homes people can afford.
There are 561 intermediate rent homes in the pipeline for Westminster and over 200 will have been built or will be under construction by 2026/27. We will also have completed 670 new social rent homes by then.
Key workers and the other people who make up the fabric of our communities should not have to rely solely on intermediate rent homes as the only way to afford to live in Westminster.
This is what social housing was designed for and what it will continue to do, in addition to low-rent intermediate housing for those who would not qualify for a council home. This is something we are proud of, and we will continue to focus on delivering the homes people need.