The figures (6-page / 53KB PDF) showed that in the first half of the 2012/13 financial year, between April and September 2012, only 425 affordable homes were started in London. This compares with 4,291 in the full year from April 2011 to March 2012; 16,328 between April 2010 and March 2011 and 15,691 between April 2009 and March 2010.
For completed homes, the figure was 1,558 in the first half of 2012/13, compared to 16,173 in the full year 2011/12; 12,869 in 2010/11 and 12,568 in 2009/10.
The Mayor of London Boris Johnson announced plans in December last year to deliver 55,000 affordable homes in the capital by 2015.
Of the 425 homes started in the first half of 2012, only 171 were started under the Government's Affordable Homes Programme (AHP), under which £1.8 billion have been allocated to be redistributed to housing providers to develop more homes. The scheme includes an affordable rent mechanism that allows housing associations to charge new tenants up to 80 per cent of market rents.
