It’s telling that in a 1,000 word article Johnson barely mentions his own track record on the issue. What he lacks in self-awareness he certainly makes up for in chutzpah, but his words still betrayed his enduring indifference to his own failures to address London’s housing crisis during his City Hall tenure. His column’s headline advocated “kicking the developers”, but in reality, as Mayor, Johnson largely allowed them to get their own way.
Probably the most egregious example of this was in 2014 when he backed Royal Mail’s proposals for the
Mount Pleasant sorting office site, taking over the planning decision before Camden and Islington Councils had even had a chance to consider the application. A mere
24% of the housing approved by Johnson was “affordable”. Royal Mail went on to sell the site at a 565% mark up to developer Taylor Wimpey
for £193 million.
Johnson’s column favourably referenced the Battersea Power Station redevelopment, approved by him with
just 12% affordable housing, which
Wandsworth Council subsequently allowed the developer to reduce to 9%. In fact, Johnson’s record on affordable housing was so poor that in his last year in office he oversaw planning permissions that granted only
13% affordable homes.
https://www.onlondon.co.uk/tom-copl...ousing-contradict-his-record-as-london-mayor/
