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Tory mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey today proposed establishing a “Housing for London” organisation to build more homes in the capital.

He suggested establishing a “taxpayer-owned housebuilder” controlled by City Hall that would operate like a private sector firm and deliver a “Big Bang” on housing, akin to the 300,000 a year built across the country by Harold Macmillan in the Fifties.

Mr Bailey said he would establish a minimum of 20 mayoral development corporations — similar to those already in place to oversee development in the Olympic Park and at Old Oak Common — that would focus on developing sites already in public ownership.

In his first major speech ahead of next May’s mayoral election, he said that “unaffordable housing is the defining problem of our generation”, adding: “Compared to London’s housing situation, Brexit is a cakewalk.”

Mr Bailey bought his home in Harold Hill under a help-to-buy scheme. He said Mayor Sadiq Khan had “utterly failed” to build the homes needed by Londoners despite receiving £4.82 billion of government housing cash.

The Tory candidate said he would set “no arbitrary target” for the number of homes to be built but told the Evening Standard: “We will definitely build more than we are building now.”

He said he would reduce Mr Khan’s target for 50 per cent of homes in developments to be affordable to 35 per cent, claiming this would result in more affordable homes being built overall.

“Only in a quarter of the sites [Mr Khan] is in charge of has he delivered anywhere near [50 per cent],” Mr Bailey said. “It acts as a bar.”

City Hall figures show that 14,544 affordable homes were started in 2018/19, marginally ahead of the 14,000 minimum target.

Affordable housing starts have risen each year under Mr Khan to a total of 34,515, but he faces a challenge achieving the overall target of 116,000 by March 2022

A spokesman for Mr Khan said: “Sadiq Khan’s Homes for Londoners team at City Hall is already out there getting affordable homes built.”