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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that shared home ownership is affordable in London.

We believe that Shared Ownership has an important role to play, as part of a diverse and thriving housing market, in helping those who aspire to home ownership but may be otherwise unable to afford it. The combination of rent and mortgage will often be lower than the cost of outright purchase and in many areas lower than the cost of private renting.

We have made changes to Guidance for grant funded Shared Ownership, including raising the income cap on Shared Ownership in England from £60,000 to £80,000 and up to £90,000 in London - allowing 175,000 more households to have access Shared Ownership.

Between 2015 and 2018 - 6,041 shared ownership homes were completed in London.

The Mayor has overall responsibility for housing policy and delivery in London, but we are all agreed that London needs to build many more homes to meet its need. That is why we have agreed that London will receive £4.8 billion of the Affordable Homes Programme funding (including £1.67 billion announced at Spring Statement 2018) to deliver at least 116,000 affordable housing starts by March 2022.