London's New Plan to Help More People Afford Housing

Londoners have been complaining that the rent is too damn high for years. Now the city may be poised to actually do something about it. On a visit to a housing project in Harlem, New York, this month, London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan unveiled details of a new London Living Rent Scheme. Under this plan, whose details have not yet been fully made public, newly built homes would be rented to people on low and middle incomes at below-market rates. London already builds some housing officially deemed to be affordable, but the new scheme would see rents fixed in a completely new way, by pegging them to people’s income.

This is a marked change in direction, and an improvement on current policy. To qualify as affordable (and thus to be able to qualify for tax breaks, incentives and eased planning approval) London homes currently have to be rented or sold at no more than 80 percent of market rate. This means such homes are often affordable in name only; apartments built in the wealthiest parts of the city can qualify for special treatment even when they are beyond the reaches of all but the very wealthy.