Sadiq Khan promises 40,000 new London council homes if he wins third term

Sadiq Khan will launch his campaign for a record third term as mayor of London by promising the “greatest council homebuilding drive in a generation”.

Appearing at an event in London on Monday, alongside the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, with whom the mayor has had public policy clashes in recent months, Khan will promise to build 40,000 new homes by 2030.

The target is double that Khan set himself between 2018 and 2024 and which was achieved last year, when it was confirmed that work had started on 23,000 homes.

The focus of Khan’s campaign is an acknowledgment that London has a housing crisis, with more than 300,000 households on the waiting list for social housing. Rough sleeping has increased by 50% in the last decade.

Should Khan be re-elected on 2 May, he would be the first person to achieve three terms as mayor since the directly elected position was created in 2000.

He is expected to claim that the contest will be the “closest ever”, although his Conservative rival Susan Hall, a London assembly member, has struggled to build a profile.

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The threat of the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn standing as an independent candidate and eating into Khan’s share of the vote also appears to have diminished.

According to the Sunday Times, friends of Corbyn, who lost the Labour whip three years ago over his response to an Equality and Human Rights Commission report, recently asked a printing company about the cost of producing election leaflets for him in the constituency of North Islington.

When Khan appears with Starmer, the Labour leader is expected to emphasise a choice between “chaos and division with the Tories, or unity and hope with Labour”.

Starmer clashed with Khan last October when the London mayor called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as the Labour leader was demanding a “humanitarian pause” to allow in aid.

The Labour leader had also criticised Khan over his ultra-low emission zone for London, suggesting it would have a disproportionate impact on people “in the middle of the cost of living crisis”.

Despite the past disputes, Starmer will claim that “from more police on the streets, being on the side of Londoners in the cost of living crisis and delivering the most council houses since the 1970s, Sadiq’s achievements as mayor of London over the last eight years have transformed our communities.”

“This is the difference Labour makes when in power,” he is expected to say.

Khan, in turn, will suggest that it will be in London’s interest for City Hall and Downing Street to be run by Labour, presenting a “once in a generation opportunity to make real inroads into solving London’s housing crisis”.

He is expected to say: “As mayor, I’m under no illusion about the scale of the challenge. The housing crisis has been decades in the making. But, with political will, it can be overcome. And today – in my first major pledge of this election campaign – I can commit to delivering at least 40,000 new council homes in our city by the end of the decade.”

He will add: “Working together with a new Labour government, I know we can go even further. Quickening the pace, building on the progress we’ve made and unleashing the greatest council housebuilding drive in a generation.

“After years of a Tory government trying to drag London backwards, a Labour government would be transformative, propelling us forwards and helping to accelerate delivery of the homes Londoners desperately need and deserve.”