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I grew up on the Henry Prince Council Estate in South London.

People there didn’t have a lot of money and life could be tough, but it was an amazing community.

I have no doubt that the fact my parents could get a council house gave me the opportunities I needed to get on, and now to have the huge privilege of serving my city as Mayor.

Having a genuinely affordable home meant my parents could bring up our family in a safe and secure environment while they worked all hours and saved every penny to buy a house of their own.

It meant the estate was a place where everyone knew each other and kept an eye out for one another.

I know the difference that having a genuinely affordable home makes because it’s the story of my life.

Which is why I am so proud that new statistics today show that more affordable homes – including homes at social rent levels - were started in London last year than in any year since City Hall was given control of housing in the capital in 2012/13.

We started building 12,526 affordable homes in London last year – that’s a 67% increase from the low that affordable homebuilding fell to in Boris Johnson's last year in office.

What's more, that number includes 2,826 homes at social rent levels - up from the shameful pipeline left by my predecessor of not a single home for social rent being started across London.

Crucially, we’ve changed the dodgy definition of ‘affordable’ used by my predecessor – so the new homes that I've agreed to fund are genuinely affordable to ordinary Londoners.

That includes 2,826 homes at social rent levels, the same as council housing, as well as 6,688 at our new London Living Rent level - which is set at a third of local income – and shared-ownership homes which allow people to take their first step onto the housing ladder.

London’s housing crisis has been generations in the making and will not be fixed overnight.

It took a turn for the worse under Margaret Thatcher – with the introduction of the Right To Buy and new government policies that made it almost impossible for Councils to build new social homes to replace those sold.

As a result, the number of social and affordable homes fell rapidly – replaced by a booming private rental sector which, as most Londoners know from bitter experience, is expensive and insecure.

Under the last Labour government, funding for new affordable homes in London increased significantly and reached a post-Thatcher peak in 2010 – the last year we were in power.

It looked like the foundations were being laid to turn things around, until the Conservatives got back into power and slashed funding for new housing once again.

Under the current Conservative government, funding for building affordable homes in London is still less than half the level they inherited from Labour in 2010.

It's also barely a quarter of the £2.7billion a year that City Hall research says would actually be needed every year to really fix the crisis.

For eight years, Boris Johnson as Mayor was only interested in building the luxury penthouse apartments that have sprung up across our city and simply did not care about whether ordinary Londoners could afford them.

The shocking result is that, with both a Tory Government and Mayor in power, the percentage of Londoners who own their own home fell to a record low.

The sad truth is that, after countless conversations with Theresa May and her ministers, I simply do not believe that they will ever increase funding for affordable and social housing to the levels we need, nor give City Hall and councils the powers and freedoms to build at the scale required.

Whether it’s because they believe the old Conservative myth that 'building council homes creates Labour voters' or for other ideological reasons - they just don’t get it.

We won’t be able to fix this crisis properly until we have a Labour Government in power led by Jeremy Corbyn.

But, as these new statistics show, we are beginning to lay the groundwork for turning things around in London from City Hall.

We’ve changed the dodgy definition of ‘affordable’ left by my predecessor.

We’ve put the focus back on building new homes for social rent and ensured tenants get a real say before their homes and communities are demolished.

We've removed arbitrary limits on density because we know fixing this crisis is Londoners' biggest concern.

We have overhauled the planning system – roughly tripling the percentage of new homes delivered this way that are genuinely affordable from the 13% low under Boris Johnson.

But there is always more to do - which is why I want as many Labour councils as possible to be elected on 3 May, so we can work together to show Londoners the difference we can make.

Given my background, I’m genuinely proud to say that, as a result of the progress announced today, tens of thousands more Londoners will get the opportunity that I had of growing up in a secure and affordable home.

And I promise that I will not rest until all Londoners get the same opportunity.