London Real Estate News: Conservatives’ London Mayoral Candidate Goldsmith Supports Housing and Planning Bill

Conservatives' London Mayoral candidate, Zac Goldsmith, said that he supports the governments' housing and planning bill as long as it is amended to "guarantee it works for Londoners."

            "I stood on a manifesto, like all of us on these benches, which committed us to help introduce this bill. But there is no doubt, as the frontbench accepts, I believe, that this bill does need amending," Goldsmith said. "London council homes are far more valuable than elsewhere and without a change we are going to see a disproportionate flow of resources out of London. So I want to amend this bill to guarantee it works for Londoners."

           Huffington Post reported that the Tory MP proposes amendments to the housing and planning bill to require local authorities to build two affordable homes for every one they sell off in London.

            "We should extend the right to buy but at the same time we must gain significant number of low-cost homes, and we know that [this] is possible," said Goldsmith. "The amendment I will table after this debate will ask for a binding guarantee London will see a net gain in affordable housing as a consequence of this policy, a guarantee that in addition to the replaced housing association homes London will see at least two low-cost homes built for every single high-value home sold," he added.

            According to The Guardian, Goldsmith has said that he already secured support from every backbench London Tory MP for his amendment, as well as has urged Labour MPs to "resist the temptation just briefly to wave flags" and do the same.

            But the Labour's mayoral candidate, Sadiq Khan, said that the London's mayoral election will be a referendum on the Tory housing policy. Khan even pointed out last Monday that only one in seven of the homes sold off under right to buy have been replaced since 2012 and asked, "How can anyone believe it will be any different this time?"

            "Isn't this kind of remarkable that at a time when new homes being built in inner London are being bought by investors overseas, this government is now forcing councils to sell family homes to those very same foreign investors at a time when the need for Londoners to have homes that are affordable has never been greater?" asked Khan.