More affordable homes

London's political parties all agree that London needs an increase in the supply of homes. The Christian Choice is also looking at reducing demand for housing where this can be done without removing the safety net currently in place for vulnerable groups.

According to the GLA, the demand for housing has increased by 20% in the last 2 decades due to a steady decline in household size. People are living longer, young adults leave the family home at a younger age, single occupancy households are on the increase, and high levels of economic migration in recent years have also added to the problem.

The Christian Choice is committed to the GLA's goal of building 50,000 more affordable homes in London over the next three years. With the government's £1.5 billion housing pot transferred from the boroughs to the GLA, we will work for a big increase in all housing, not just to buy but to rent. 42% of social housing needs to be 4 or more bedrooms. We will also see this is met.

The first action of our Assembly team will be to maximise the potential for new development by concentrating on bringing empty homes back into use, converting buildings to residential or mixed use and using vacant sites.

We also face up to the causes of family breakdown, which is putting pressure on housing need. Priority will be given to tackling poverty - a cause of relationship breakdown. As a result of our policies to address the causes of family break up, we will cut homelessness, so reducing the demand for affordable housing.

We will also review the impact of economic migration on housing supply and seek to ensure that the real benefits to the economy provided by migrants are not at the expense of housing supply to vulnerable groups.

As Mayor, Alan Craig will use his influence to challenge national housing policy. There's little point in building houses for rent if they are lost through the right to buy. We want right-to-buy replaced with schemes where social landlords retain a portion of the equity, so that homes can be returned to the affordable sector when the owner moves on.

The Christian Choice will also promote housing schemes where buyers take a loan for a deposit from either private sector lenders or the GLA to get on the housing ladder. This will help encourage first- time buyers into the market.

'Land-banks' held back from house-building by developers will also be made known. We will press to implement Royal Town Planning Institute recommendations that builders declare the amount of land they own with planning permission in each of the London boroughs.

The number of people aged over 65 is set to rise by 70% and the over 85s will go up by 149% over the next 30 years, according to government figures. An ageing population and an increasing number of younger disabled people is set to put the supply in London of adaptable housing and funds for adaptations under even greater strain. We will make a priority of addressing the housing needs of older and disabled people by encouraging use of Lifetime Homes standards, allowing housing to be easily adapted for use by wheelchair users, ensuring residents can stay within the community throughout their lives.