Number of private new-builds in London halved to lowest level since 2012

The number of homes being built by private developers in London has halved to the lowest level for six years in the latest setback to Sadiq Khan’s ambitions to tackle the housing crisis.

A new report on the “bleak wider picture” of housebuilding in the capital today blames Brexit for the sharpest slowdown since the financial crash.

Work started on just 3,655 new private flats and houses in London in the three months from June to September, down from 7,153 in the previous quarter, according to latest figures from re-searchers Molior. That was the fewest since the third quarter of 2012.

In its quarterly sales report, Molior analysts Sam Long and Tim Craine said: “To a certain extent much of this should be expected given the country has recently voted twice for a period of uncertainty, in the 2016 European referendum and the subsequent general election.”

Number of new private housing units on which work started in June to September last year

It comes a day after one of Britain’s biggest housebuilders, Crest Nicholson, issued a profit warning because sales of new homes in London and the South-East “have not picked up during the traditionally stronger early autumn selling season.” Latest figures from the Land Registry this week show sales down nearly a third in the year to June.

The Molior findings will make worrying reading at City Hall, where the new London Plan, to be published next year is expected to set a target of almost 65,000 housing starts a year over the next decade.

Over the past four quarters, Molior recorded just 23,507 starts. The quarterly Molior report covers 706 housing schemes with at least 20 private units — about 80 per cent of the private market, which in turn accounts for some three quarters of housebuilding in London. Public bodies such as housing as-sociations and councils build the rest.

A spokesman for the Mayor said: “Last year City Hall started building more social rented homes than ever before. As this report makes crystal clear, it is no wonder that private developers’ confidence has been seriously shaken after two years of chaotic Brexit negotiations but this won’t stop the Mayor continuing to build record numbers of social and genuinely affordable homes.”