Loophole of 80% 'affordable' rent could be exploited by developers
Channel: Sian Berry
Date: 12/10/2017

The Mayor's draft Housing Strategy includes a definition of 'affordable rent' from the Government which could allow developers to build homes at up to 80% of market rates that still count as 'affordable'. 

This could be a serious a loophole in our new planning policies (the London Plan) as it would mean private developers could meet the planning policy requirements by building only these more expensive affordable homes and still count them all as 'affordable'.

Sian Berry asked the Mayor what Londoners could do to make sure a better definition of 'affordable' in terms of wages was set in our new planning policies.

The Mayor didn't really answer the question and talked about his funding plans and other issues, so we don't know what thinks about new planning rules and this definition from this exchange, but he has agreed to meet Sian where they will be able to talk about it in more detail.

Mayor's Question Time, 12 October 2017