Khan doubles new council homes target in his first big campaign pledge

SIR Keir Starmer joined Sadiq Khan today for the Mayor’s re-election campaign, pledging to double his council homes building target to 40,000 — and trumpeting the prospect of a Labour government and mayor offering a “once in a generation” chance to ease London’s housing crisis.

- Nicholas Cecil and Noah Vickers

The Labour leader told Londoners they had the choice between “chaos and division with the Tories, or unity and hope with Labour” as the Conservatives nationally have suffered a series of recent setbacks.

Despite polls suggesting Mr Khan is way ahead of his Tory rival Susan Hall, the Mayor sought to argue that the contest for City Hall was set to be the “closest ever” and stressed it is a “two-horse race” with the voting system changing to first-past-the-post.

In his first campaign pledge, Mr Khan vowed to deliver 40,000 new council homes for the capital between 2018 and 2030, building on his previous target of starting 20,000 which he met last year. He branded it the “greatest council homebuilding drive in a generation” but the extra homes are still dwarfed by the number of people on council house waiting lists.