On Tuesday 4th August, as Asian Voice went to print, the mayor of London has proposed that key workers should get priority access to cheaper housing in the capital. Under the proposals, workers such as nurses, police officers and teachers would be given priority for shared ownership homes and property offered at the London Living Rent.
Sadiq Khan said key workers "keep London running" but "housing costs have driven far too many Londoners away". It is part of a wider consultation looking at intermediate housing for people who are unlikely to get homes at social rent levels, but cannot afford to buy or rent them on the open market. The survey looks at who should be prioritised for such housing and which key worker occupations could be considered in the different boroughs.
However, Andrew Boff AM, housing spokesman for the Greater London Authority Conservatives in an interview with the BBC described the plans as "yet another PR distraction from Sadiq Khan to hide his failure to build the homes he promised Londoners".
"If Khan wants to help London's Covid heroes put down roots in our city, he urgently needs to review his housing policies which are failing to deliver homes fit for families," he said.
The consultation is likely to run until 11 October.
