London’s deputy mayor says the capital is ready to “build, build, build” new houses under a fresh government.  

Tom Copley said Mayor Sadiq Khan is ready to do its part to see an incoming Labour administration builds 1.5 million homes over the next five years should it win the 4 July general election.  

In a speech in central London this afternoon, Copley said City Hall was full of “YIMBYs”, which he said translates into ‘yes in my back yard,’ rather than NIMBYs, meaning ‘not in my back yard’.  

The Labour political appointee who took up his housing and regeneration brief in March 2020, said the public sector will do more to “make it easier for the private sector to build, but also a proactive public sector can create the conditions for the step-change in housing delivery that we need in London and across the country”.  

He says that the public sector will be “more directly involved in building”, whether this comes through “the renaissance in London council homebuilding in recent years,” or by providing support to housing associations.  

Copley also wants to see more on planning and infrastructure between the private and public sectors.  

The deputy mayor says: “Sadiq has made clear in his manifesto he wants to see further use of development corporations.”  

Finally, he adds there should be wider talks about “what the ‘good growth’ of our city looks like,” with business and ordinary Londoners.  

Last month, before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared that the country should go to the polls, Khan called for a £2.2bn emergency London housing stimulus from government.     

The mayor did not outline how many homes the extra cash would build, but pointed out that the capital’s current Affordable Homes 2023-26 Programme, funded by the government, is worth £4bn and will build around 24,000 properties.