BORIS Johnson has announced plans to help thousands of council and housing association tenants buy their homes, in a return to Margaret Thatcher's vision of a property-owning society.

The Mayor of London believes that encouraging residents in subsidised rented housing to buy their property will create a fairer society in the capital.

The proposal is part of a new housing strategy for London which includes plans for 50,000 new homes across the city.

The £5 billion scheme will also focus on buying unsold private properties to use as low-cost homes, and making unused publicly-owned land available for developers.

Mr Johnson's London Housing Strategy, which will now go to consultation with the London Assembly, warns that London's population is expected to rise from 7.5 million in 2006 to between 8.3 and 8.6 million by 2026.

But the number of households will grow at an even faster rate, because people are marrying later, living longer and are more likely to divorce.

The city may have up to 710,000 extra households by 2026, the strategy says. But there are already 54,000 homeless households stuck in temporary accommodation.

Of the 50,000 planned "affordable homes" due to be built, 30,000 will be council or housing association rented properties.
But tenants will be encouraged ultimately to buy the properties.

The strategy document said: "For some council and housing association tenants, social renting should and could be a step on their housing journey, rather than a final destination."

It continued: "Owning a home is traditionally one of the primary ways in which people are able to build up assets for their retirement, or to pass on to future generations.

"Exclusion from home ownership is a major cause of wealth inequality, affecting both current generations and future ones . . . helping social housing tenants to become home owners, where they can afford to do so, is one way of breaking this cycle of wealth inequality."

The strategy also includes plans to make low-cost home ownership schemes - such as "shared equity" schemes, where tenants buy a half-share in their property, allowing them to get a foot on the housing ladder with a limited mortgage - available to more people.

Many of the schemes are currently available only to "key workers" such as teachers, but Mr Johnson wants to make them available to any household with a combined income of £72,000 or less.

He said: "The strategy focuses not only on the issues facing the housing market in these difficult times but the historic problems of affordability, homelessness and overcrowding.

"It is designed to meet the needs of Londoners aspiring to get a foot on the housing ladder.

"For far too long London's finest have been priced out of the capital's housing market and, as a result, forced out of town with the capital losing their skills and expertise."

Creating more home owners would help the city's housing market when the economy recovered, he added.

Related links: Mayor's Housing Strategy

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