Labour’s “open door immigration policy” is “swallowing up London’s housing supply”, the Conservatives have claimed. Tory analysis claims London will be “left with a shortfall of 207,900 homes by 2030” in a best-case scenario.
The average property in the capital last month cost £539,914, compared with a national average of £298,237, according to the Halifax.
The Conservatives say “immigration alone will require an average of 68,700 new homes in London every year”.
A study last year by Oxford University’s Migration Observatory reported “London has the largest proportion of migrants among UK regions, with over 40% of its residents born abroad”.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said Labour had “turned London’s housing crisis into a housing catastrophe,” adding: “The capital has become a pressure cooker, and it’s British families who are paying the price.”
A spokesperson for Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said: “This is simply not true. The Mayor is working to overturn the previous Government’s terrible legacy when it comes to housing.
“The truth is Sadiq has completed more new homes of all tenures than any time since the 1930s and started more new council homes than any time since the 1970s. The Mayor is taking the hard decisions to improve housing supply of all tenures for Londoners – including actively exploring releasing parts of London’s green belt for development – as he continues to build a better London for everyone.”
A Labour party spokesperson accused the Conservatives of trying to “airbrush history”, saying: “The Tories have some brass neck. Their open borders experiment saw immigration hit record highs at nearly one million and Chris Philp completely failed to tackle the number of dangerous small boats crossing the Channel when he was immigration minister”.
He accused the Tories of fuelling “the worst housing crisis in living memory – as they scrapped targets and torpedoed supply”.
But the Conservatives said: “This is Labour’s Britain. Build nothing, plan nothing, flood the system, and then act surprised when it buckles.
“Londoners are being priced out, pushed aside, and packed into shoebox flats while the Government lays out the welcome mat for immigrants.”
