My promise to Londoners today is to give them a real say on how empty land and buildings across their city are developed (Photo: Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Of all the problems facing our country and our capital, few are more pressing than the housing crisis.

We can all see, just from walking to and from work every day, that the lack of homes we can afford and the pitiful rights given to renters have squeezed so many people in Britain to breaking point. Rough sleeping is at such a shameful level that people are dying on the steps of Parliament, while one in every two hundred people are without a secure home.

Before I was elected to the London Assembly in 2016 I spent a lot of time listening to Londoners, and I heard real and justified concerns from them about where they and their children will live if this crisis isn’t brought under control. I promised then to fight for every Londoner’s right to the dignity and security of a place to call home.



The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is failing to meet this challenge, and failing to stem the loss of social housing due to top-down destructive ‘regeneration’ schemes. Last year, I uncovered the shocking fact that demolition schemes have led to the net loss of more than 4000 council and social rent homes in recent years with 7000 more to come in plans approved by City Hall. Far from addressing the problem, we are going backwards.


Today Green Party members chose me to challenge Sadiq Khan to become Mayor of London in 2020 (Photo: SAV/Getty Images)

Knocking down people’s lifelong homes without any meaningful plan to replace them is a cruel and callous way to treat the citizens of your own city. That’s why in 2016 the Green Party promised to give power to residents whose homes faced demolition – and we have delivered on that promise as elected Assembly Members.

Last year, after a long campaign pushing the Mayor to recognise Londoners’ rights to decide on the future of their homes, we won binding ballots for estate residents whose homes are proposed to be torn down.

And ballots are only the beginning of giving power back to Londoners over how our city plans and builds for the future of housing.

Today Green Party members chose me to challenge Sadiq Khan to become Mayor of London in 2020, and my promise to Londoners today is to give them a real say on how empty land and buildings across their city are developed.

I want to put community organising at the heart of solving the housing crisis and put planning our city back in the hands of the people, with a People’s Land Bank. This would empower communities across London to find space which is currently being wasted, and support them to choose how its brought back into use.

Across the city we have so much underutilised space, from empty buildings, to abandoned car parks to spaces around and above our current homes, which can be used for homes without demolishing any of the places Londoners currently live. The Centre for London think tank discovered that the floor space of unused buildings alone amounted to an astonishing 1.8 million square metres of land. We need to give Londoners support to find, make plans for and take control of these spaces, and use them to give Londoners a home.

New homes aren’t the only thing we need to solve the housing crisis though – private renters are being treated abominably with the end of a private tenancy now the leading cause of becoming homeless.



Rights like not being evicted with no reason need to be fought for at a national level much harder by the Mayor. I criticised him for going slow on this issue before Christmas, when renters are facing eye-watering rents and struggling with wages at the same time. Only a few weeks later he announced he would push harder for powers from the Government – starting now.

Better late than never, but why should London wait so long when Greens have a reputation for good ideas and for delivering when we are elected?

As one of just two Green Assembly Members over the last few years, I’ve got a track record of not just bringing good ideas to the table – but bringing them to life. Every Green you vote into City Hall next year will put ideas like the People’s Land Bank into action.

I’m looking forward to our biggest and boldest London campaign ever in the next year, and with your support, we can put more Green voices into the Assembly in May 2020 and change London for the better – starting with homes planned by and for Londoners.

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