Sadiq Khan was today accused of “failing Londoners” by the GLA Conservatives after figures revealed a cut to affordable housing targets.

The figures, which were requested by Conservative Assembly member Andrew Boff, revealed that only 35,000 new affordable homes would be built in London by 2026 using a £4.82 billion Government grant.

Funding from the Affordable Homes Programme was supposed to deliver 116,000 new affordable homes in London between 2016 and 2022, but only 56,239 had been completed as of December 2020.

Complications including Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic led to the deadline being moved to 2023.

The GLA will use the remaining funding to complete reach this new deadline, but the next £4.82 billion grant for the years 2021 to 2026 will only build 35,000 new affordable homes in what Mr Boff called a “ridiculously unambitious plan”.

Mr Boff, the GLA Conservatives housing spokesperson, today said: “London has a fantastic deal from the Government – we’ve been given a third of England’s affordable homes budget. It’s the Mayor’s job to come up with a plan to turn that investment into new homes. He has no excuses for being unambitious.

“Under Sadiq Khan, City Hall housebuilding has become sluggish. After five years, he’s started less than half of the homes he has the money to build. It’s no wonder he’s chickening out and scaling back his housing plan by two-thirds.

“The Mayor is failing Londoners by squandering this golden opportunity to deliver the homes our city desperately needs. Londoners will not forgive him for passing up an opportunity to build nearly 100,000 new homes with this cash.”

However, a spokesperson for the Mayor of London said that Sadiq Khan “has hit every one of his annual delivery targets” over the past five years.

The spokesperson said: “While the funding from central Government for affordable housebuilding in London remains woefully inadequate, the mayor is confident in hitting his target of starting 82,000 new genuinely affordable homes between 2021-26, and will continue to campaign for the full funding London needs.”