Mayor's housing goal under threat

Agreement has been reached to build 16,750 homes, Sir Simon said

London Mayor Boris Johnson may not reach his target of building 50,000 affordable homes by 2011, deputy mayor Sir Simon Milton has admitted.

In November the mayor announced the target to help Londoners "aspiring to get a foot on the housing ladder".

But on Sunday Sir Simon said: "You can't guarantee anything in this market. It would be foolish to do so."

Agreement has been reached to build 16,750 affordable homes and negotiation continues for 20,500 more, he added.

Sir Simon, deputy mayor for policy and planning, said housing targets had been agreed with 14 of London's 33 boroughs.

Negotiations with the 19 remaining boroughs are still ongoing, he told BBC One's The Politics Show.

If you look outside you'll see the cranes have disappeared - there is very little housing being built in London Sir Simon Miton, deputy mayor for policy and planning

But he added it would be "hard to say" whether the 50,000 target would be reached.

"If you look outside you'll see the cranes have disappeared - there is very little housing being built in London," Sir Simon said.

"Across the country housing has stalled. We at least have a proactive programme to try to do something about it."

Sir Robin Wales, mayor of Newham Council in east London, said the mayor's housing targets must be "realistic and deliverable" throughout the city.

"Newham was set a target of 5,754 affordable homes over the next three years, the highest in the capital," he said.

"We expect the rest of the capital to play its part and recognise demand across London, and therefore expect that targets are fairly and evenly set across the city."

Richard Blakeway, the mayor's director of housing, refused to discuss the housing targets for individual boroughs.

But he added: "The affordable homes targets are based on the capacity of each of the boroughs to deliver the homes needed, including the supply of land in the area."