The statistical body rejects the mayor’s request for housing

UKSA president Sir Robert Chote said Sadiq Khan’s stance on delivering affordable homes “could be misconstrued”, reports Local Democracy reporter Noah Vickers

Sadiq Khan has been criticized by the chairman of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) for claims he made about his affordable housebuilding record.

The Mayor of London is said to have used language that “could be misinterpreted by the average person” when describing the number of affordable homes built with City Hall funding, which in turn was awarded by the Government.

During his bid for a third term in this year’s mayoral election, Khan wrote in an article for the website LabourList in March that “25,000 truly affordable homes have been delivered in the last year alone” . The same claim was made on the mayor’s official re-election website, promoted by the London Labor Party.

In a letter of complaint to UKSA, Lord Shaun Bailey – a Conservative member of the London Assembly who opposed Mr Khan in the 2021 mayoral race – said he was concerned that such claims could be “misleading material the general public”.

He argued this for two reasons. First, he objected to the use of the word “delivered” when the mayor was actually referring to 25,658 homes that had begun construction, not completed.

Lord Bailey also took issue with the mayor’s claim that this number was reached “in the last year only”, as Mr Khan was referring to homes started in the 2022/23 financial year, covering the period between April 2022 and March 2023.

That’s because the mayor was talking about the last full year for which data was available at the time of writing, March 2024.

Data for the twelve months that followed – the last quarter of which was published in May 2024 – showed that there was in fact a record low number of affordable homes started using Council funding between April 2023 and March 2024. Only 2,358 homes were started during that time.

Responding to Lord Bailey’s complaint, UKSA chairman Sir Robert Chote said in a letter on Friday that he agreed “the Mayor’s use of the word ‘delivered’ could be misconstrued by the average person to mean that the dwelling was completed rather than begun’.

Regarding the 2022/2023 time frame referred to, Sir Robert wrote: “Although the Mayor would not have had access to the statistics for the equivalent period of 2023/24 at the time of writing, the number of affordable housing starts and completions for 2023/24 it was 2,358 and 10,949 respectively.

“The reference to ‘within the last year’ would have been intended to reflect the last year of available statistics, but this would not be clear from the statement alone.”

Commenting on Sir Robert’s letter, Lord Bailey now said: “Given the real need to build more real affordable homes and give Londoners the best possible chance of getting on the housing ladder, we need to be honest about to the challenges facing the city in terms of house building.

“I thought the mayor’s presentation of numbers in this way, including during his recent election campaign, was at best unhelpful and at worst deliberately misleading the public.”

He added that “with the regulator agreeing that these figures are dishonest”, the town hall’s Tories “would urge the mayor to apologise”.

The Mayor’s affordable housing targets are set by the Government and use housing starts rather than completions as a benchmark. For example, the previous affordable housing program had a starting construction target of 116,000 homes between 2016 and 2023, which Khan’s team exceeded.

City Hall sources argued that it was therefore reasonable for the Mayor to use the term “delivered” in the context of what the Government asked him to do.

A mayoral spokeswoman said: “Under Sadiq, total housing completions in London have consistently outpaced the rest of the country, with council house building in the capital reaching levels not seen since the 1970s.

“The Mayor has also started a record number of affordable homes, including the 25,000 truly affordable homes starting in 2022/23 – figures confirmed by UKSA.”

The record low number of affordable homes starting in 2023/24 was blamed by Khan’s team on government delays in providing funding for the latest affordable homes programme, which runs until 2026.

Independent news outlets like ours – which report for the community without wealthy backers – are under threat of closure, turning Britain’s cities into news deserts.

The public they serve know less, understand less, and can do less.

In celebration of him India News WeekThe Public Interest News Foundation’s Indie News Fund will match the fund for all donations, including new annual supporter subscriptions for the month of June.

If our coverage has helped you understand our community a little better, please consider supporting us with a monthly, annual or one-time donation.

Choose the news. Don’t miss the news.

Direct monthly debit

Annual direct debit

£5 a month backers get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 a month backers get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted each month. Annual £50 backers get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else. Annual £84 backers get a hard copy by post and a digital copy of each month before anyone else.

More information about supporting us monthly

More information about donations