Waltham Forest Council officially launched its Affordable Housing Commission in the new Jazz Yards housing development in Walthamstow.

In our 2022 manifesto Waltham Forest Labour pledged a decent roof over the head of every resident. Affordability is one of the biggest challenges facing our residents and residents tell us time and time again that they want us to use every tool we have to tackle it.

The Commission has professionals from the highest levels of the housing industry and leading experts to provide recommendations which we can use to ensure we are building as many affordable homes as possible right now and in the future. We will also seek recommendations on the private rented sector so that we are effectively engaging with landlords on behalf of residents. The launch of our Commission shows that we are using innovation and creativity to deliver for our residents. The Commission will meet a number of times and then issue a report later in the year.

Waltham Forest Labour is proud of our record on housing. Waltham Forest already has one of the better records in London for building new affordable homes. It has the sixth-highest figure of new homes for social rent in the capital over the last three years, and research from summer 2022 found that half of our residents feel positively about the fact that the Council has prioritised building new homes for sale and rent. However, demand for housing continues to increase faster than the supply, and there are currently around 6,000 households on the housing waiting list.

The Council has pledged to build 1,000 new homes for social rent by 2026 and has a target of 27,000 new homes of all tenures over the next 15 years. The Council’s fully owned development company Sixty Bricks will contribute 5,000 of those.