The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is providing housing associations across the capital with an extra £200m to ensure the continued building of affordable housing regardless of the impact of Brexit.

As reported by ShowHouse, faced with a slowdown of new home sales in London, the Mayor will help housing associations by offering extra funding to switch homes from the market sale or shared ownership to homes for rent at social or intermediate rent levels which are lower than market rent. This extra funding will enable them to commit to their future plans, sign construction contracts, and begin development without further delay.

Sadiq Khan speaks frequently about his determination to create more much-needed affordable housing in the capital and we recently shared an Advantage blog about his ‘Small Site, Small Builders’ scheme, using small plots of publicly-owned land to develop affordable housing.

The Mayor is urging the central government to match his funding commitment, saying: “Whatever happens with Brexit, Ministers must at the very least match my support, and ensure we can keep building the homes Londoners need over the coming years.”

The funding announcement came as Halifax revealed new figures showing that mortgages in the capital are at the least affordable they’ve been in a decade. According to Property Reporter: Newly released data from Halifax has revealed that despite mortgage affordability across the UK remaining steady at (or just below) the 30% of average disposable earnings since 2009, once again London bucks the trend.

According to the data, over the past decade, London average mortgage payments, as a proportion of disposable earnings have risen by 18% (from 40% in 2008 to 47% today), driven by house price increases.

The 10 most affordable local areas are all in northern England and Scotland, whilst the 10 least affordable areas are all in London and the South East.

Related feature: 76 new tall buildings will be joining the London skyline this year.