The next Mayor of London should be given powers to set stamp duty rates as part of a raft of new measures to address the housing crisis, a think-tank has proposed.
The London Housing Commission said that London should be able to retain stamp duty revenue, which could then be used to directly fund the building of homes.
In return for greater powers over borrowing, property taxes and planning, the Mayor and boroughs would have to make a joint commitment to deliver significantly higher numbers of new homes.
Labour MP Sadiq Khan and his Conservative rival Zac Goldsmith are currently battling it out to become London’s next mayor. How they plan on dealing with the housing crisis in the capital is likely to play a key role in winning the hearts and minds of voters.
The housing commission also argued that boroughs should also be able to set council tax premium on empty and second homes.
It said that by devolving powers in this way could double the number of homes currently being built each year to 50,000.
Lord Bob Kerslake, chair of the London Housing Commission, said: “London is facing a housing crisis of unprecedented proportions brought about by a chronic undersupply of new housing. It needs urgently to be building far more houses of all types and tenures.
“We are confident that the package of measures we have set out in our report would go a long way to solving London’s problems. While the Mayor and the boroughs can do more with the powers that they have now, the only route to building substantially more homes in London is to give the capital’s leaders more direct responsibility over the key levers such as land use, planning rules, housing standards, property taxes and investment and holding them accountable for delivery.
“If nothing is done, both the scarcity and affordability of housing across London will continue to worsen. Levels of home ownership will continue to fall and rents will continue to rise. That will not only put extra strains on the lives of Londoner’s living in the capital, but will also have wider social and economic consequences.”
