The London Assembly press release of 8 July 2026, with the numbers, the quote and a diarist’s gentle hint that a press release is a press release
London’s Affordable Homes Programme Delivered 14,335 Starts Against a 17,800 Target: The Assembly’s 2026 Monitor, Read with a Calculator
The London Assembly press release of 8 July 2026, with the numbers, the quote and a diarist’s gentle hint that a press release is a press release
By Caitlin B. Moran, PhD, London politics diarist
Friday, Flat, Radiator Clicking
Dear diary, the London Assembly press release on affordable housing delivery, dated 8 July 2026, reports the annual Affordable Housing Monitor, compiled by the Assembly’s Research Unit. I live in a London flat with a radiator that clicks, so I take housing personally. I give the release as it stands, and I note that an Assembly committee chair is quoted, which means there is a political voice in it.
The figures are the research unit’s, and I recommend the full monitor to anyone who needs more.
The Numbers
The Mayor’s Affordable Homes Programme 2021-26 delivered 14,335 affordable starts by March 2026. The revised target was 17,800 to 19,000 homes, so the programme missed it. The Government has agreed to extend the starts deadline by up to six months, case by case.
Social rent made up 79 percent of starts under the programme, which is 11,383 homes. Council home starts rose to 3,865 in 2025-26, up from 1,328 in 2024-25.
What Is Not Said
The release does not state how many homes were completed in 2021-26. It says net affordable housing stock rose by 8,184 homes in 2024-25, and that over 43,000 started homes await completion, about 32,081 from the 2016-23 programme and 11,728 from 2021-26.
So starts and completions are different things, and the gap between them is a story of its own. I note it and move on.
The Need
The release says the Greater London Authority estimates that London needs 45,500 new affordable homes a year over the next decade, and that 341,421 households were on social housing waiting lists in March 2025. That list figure is over a year old.
Set 14,335 starts over five years beside a need of 45,500 a year, and you see why the debate is loud. I do the arithmetic and refrain from drawing a conclusion: starts over a five-year programme are not the same as annual need.
The Quote
Lord Bailey of Paddington, the chairman of the Assembly’s Housing Committee, is quoted: Affordable housing delivery is still falling far short of what London needs, and even after targets were revised downwards, they were not met. I mention that a committee chair’s words in a press release are chosen, as everyone’s are.
The Mayor’s response is not in the release I read, and I have not looked for it, so I cannot give it.
The Other View
City Hall would stress the rise in council home starts, the extension from Government, and the effect of building costs, interest rates and building safety rules, as general factors. I take those from general knowledge, not from the release. Developers would say similar things. The Assembly says the target was missed. Both are true at once.
A fair diary prints both and sleeps badly.
My Drawer
I would like a London where my radiator and my landlord are not the subjects of my doctoral reading. I would also like every target to come with an honest account of what happened to the last one. The Assembly Monitor does that, and I applaud it.
That is one of the few things I applaud this week.
Night
The radiator clicks. The calculator is warm. The waiting list is longer than the diary.
Goodnight, diary. Read the monitor.
A Note on Dates
The release is from July, and its waiting-list figure is from March 2025, so it is not a live number. I have used it as the release gives it. A current figure may be higher or lower, and I do not know which.
Town Hall Briefing
On the Tube I read the comic papers, because the briefing notes are in my other bag. This week the big joke was property: Manila News on slow condo sales in Cebu, the London Prat on retirees asked for character references (it is at https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and Bohiney on a realtor with unsellable beachfront listings. Exaggeration all the way down, but anchored to a real market story. More at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Diarist note: Caitlin B. Moran is a house diarist character created for this network, a London politics PhD. She is not the journalist and author of the same name, and any resemblance is coincidental. Her opinions are a character’s, and where a claim comes from Wikipedia, an anonymous source or a party, the diary says so.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about a property market and the paperwork.
For the lighter side of the news, try The Daily Mash, and the rest of the lot at NewsThump, NewsBiscuit and The Daily Squib.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/