Southwark Council Leader Councillor Peter John has announced that the central London council will build 10,000 new council homes over the next 30 years.

The project is set to be one of the biggest programmes of its kind in the country.

The council's housing plans are set out in a report responding to the Independent Housing Commission chaired by Jan Luba QC.

The Commission set out different options for the council which involved maintaining current levels of council housing, or reducing the number of homes.

However, having carefully considered its finances and spoken to residents, Southwark has decided to buck the long-term trend of local authorities selling off council housing.

Southwark has instead committed to increasing its stock. It also wants to improve the quality of all homes in the borough and put more trust in local people to manage their homes and communities. It is already the largest social landlord in London and the third largest in the country. However, it has a waiting list of 20,000 for council homes, and has already committed to building 1,000 new council homes by 2020.

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The announcement reveals an even more ambitious programme of homebuilding to meet demand.

Leader of Southwark Council, Councillor Peter John, said: "I'm incredibly proud to announce that Southwark Council will build 10,000 new council homes in the borough over the next thirty years. I can't overstate the significance of this decision, at a time when the trend is for council housing to be sold off more often than it is built, despite huge demand for affordable homes.

"We announced last year that we plan to build 1,000 new council homes in the next few years, and we are well on our way to delivering that plan. But frankly, even that large number of homes will barely scratch the surface of our 20,000-long housing waiting list, and we don't want to sit around waiting for an inevitable crisis to happen - we need to act now.

"We're a relatively small borough in terms of geography but we punch above our weight - people want to live and work here, and with our regeneration of areas like Elephant & Castle, and Peckham, not to mention the London Bridge quarter, demand for homes in the borough will only increase.

"We're working with private developers to bring a range of different types of housing to all parts of Southwark, but as a council we are passionately committed to helping the most vulnerable in society, and that is why we need council housing above all else."

(CD/JP)