The London Tenants Federation has expressed disbelief at tenants’ exclusion from the Deputy Mayor for Housing’s new taskforce for the recovery of London’s housing sector after lockdown.

Deputy Mayor Tom Copley announced the new taskforce on 28th April, promising it would bring together leaders from ‘across the housing sector’ to speak with ‘one voice’.

“How have we been so quick to forget the lessons of Grenfell?” Asked Pat Turnbull, representative for London Tenants Federation (LTF).

“With tenants excluded from this task force, we fear things will return to ‘business as usual’ once lockdown eases.”

“Representatives of building firms, developers, housing associations and the London Mayor have different priorities and experiences to those at the sharp end of London’s persistent failure to deliver social rented housing.

“If Deputy Mayor for Housing Tom Copley is really serious – as he says he is – about getting more social rented housing built during the recovery from this pandemic, then tenants are the people who can strengthen his arguments and insist that this is the priority.”

78% of London’s backlog of unmet housing need is for social rented housing.