The Mayor of London has warned the “housing crisis” in the borough will not be resolved any time soon.

Sadiq Khan, who was elected as leader of the capital in May this year, paid a visit to the Shree Swaminarayan Mandir Kingsbury, in Kingsbury Road, this morning.

The former Labour MP for Tooting was a guest of honour as the Hindu temple celebrated its second anniversary and was presented with a Paag, a special turban reserved for leaders of the community.

After the ceremony, he expressed concern over a lack of affordable housing in Harrow and admitted it will take some time before cheaper homes can become more accessible for people hoping to buy or rent.

He said: “The single biggest issue facing people living in London today is the housing crisis. The bad news is, during the last year, only 4,800 affordable homes were built.

“If you then compare that to the number of affordable homes being given permission last year, only 13 per cent of those got agreed to.

“It takes two years from being given permission to being built, so unfortunately I cannot turn this around overnight and it will take a while to build genuine affordable homes to buy or rent.”

Mr Khan says he is prioritising building thousands of new homes a year with his Homes for Londoners team to ensure buyers or renters get a fairer deal with what they pay for.

This will include a Homes for London Living Rent, which will be a new type of home for people struggling to rent privately and where rents will be based on only one-third of average local wages.

He said: “I have started to compile my team of experts for my scheme, Homes for Londoners, and this will include local authorities, housing associations, developers and experts.

“They are going to help me and make sure we start to build the genuinely affordable homes that people need in Harrow and across the rest of the city.”

By Rachel Russell