The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has slammed the Government for failing to properly tackle the housing crisis.

Mayor Khan hit out after analysis by the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) revealed a newly announced £2 billion government fund for housing is in fact money diverted from existing housing funding ‘pots'.

At the Conservative Conference in October, Prime Minister Theresa May pledged to invest £2bn to build new 'affordable' housing across the country, with Chancellor Hammond also confirming the funding in the Autumn Budget; "The Budget confirms the further £2 billion of funding for affordable housing announced in October, including funding for social rented homes."

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However, a report by the OBR states: "The £2 billion of spending announced by the Prime Minister in October has been financed by reducing spending on ‘accelerated construction' and ‘starter homes' across the four years from 2017-18 to 2020-21."

Mayor Khan said a key pledge from the Prime Minister has turned out to be "just smoke and mirrors and not new money".

"This is the most anti-London Budget in a generation, one which exposes the Government's abject failure to tackle London's housing crisis.

"The Government's current spending on affordable housing in London is still less than half of what it reached in 2010 and less than a fifth of what we really need."

Mayor Sir Steve Bullock, London Councils' Executive member for housing, said: "There are more than 50,000 homeless households in temporary accommodation in London and the need for 72,000 new homes a year to meet demand.

"The Chancellor has taken steps to acknowledge the housing crisis in London in the Autumn Budget but he has not gone far enough to empower councils to play their full part in fixing the capital's broken housing market."

(LM/MH)