46,000 extra homes a year needed

London will need to build 46,000 new homes a year to meet housing demand over the next 15 years, a new government study has found.

The findings, for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), claim that the number of flats and houses will have to be 80 per cent more than previously forecast.

The Campaign to Protect Rural England reacted swiftly to the figures and warned the capital's needs would put pressure on the whole South-East to take new homes. The government study, which is based on 2002 population trends, far outstrips projections even of Ken Livingstone and the Greater London Authority.

The Mayor is planning on 30,000 new homes a year, based on the size of average households remaining the same over the next 20 years.

Across England as a whole, the ODPM research found the number of additional homes would rise from 150,000 to

188,000 a year

until 2021. The North-East is predicated to have a decrease in the rate of extra households, while other regions including the South-East are projected to have only marginal rates of increase.

The Mayor's office said the new projections were unrealistic because they assumed homes could be built free of limits on planning and spare land.

One source said the actual figure would end up "somewhere in the middle" of the Government's figures and those of the Mayor. "We know there is overcrowding and households which would like to access

housing. We know there is pent-up demand for more housing in London," the source said.

Housing Minister Keith Hill this week told a conference in the three months to June, 35 per cent more houses were built in London and 10 per cent more across England as a whole.

The 30,000 a year figure currently used for the capital is based on a Treasury review of the issue by economist Kate Barker. Tony Blair has declared housing is one of his key priorities for a third term in office and has pledged to ease problems of supply.