Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of new homes needed annually to meet London's housing needs into 2020.

From the 1 April 2012, the Mayor of London has had strategic oversight of housing, regeneration and economic development in London.

The Department does not estimate demand for housing. However, the Department publishes household projections, which are a trend-based view of the number of households that would form given projected population and previous demographic trends.

The most recent household projections are 2011-based. The projected household numbers are disaggregated by household type and are published at:

http://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-communities-and-local-government/series/household-projections

I would observe that new home registrations rose by 30% in 2013 in England, the highest since 2007; and are up 60% in London, the highest for over two decades, this is in contrast to Wales which has a Labour Administration, where new home registrations are falling (source: NHBC).

More new council housing was started in London last year than in all the 13 years for the last Labour Government combined.