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LONDON Mayor Boris Johnson joined forces with Tory pal George Osborne yesterday to launch a massive new attack on low-rent homes in the capital.
Fears mounted as they revealed plans for a London land commission to identify “all the public-sector brownfield land” in the city and earmark it for development.
Only a year ago Communities Secretary Eric Pickles revealed council housing was included in his definition of “brownfield” — a phrase more usually linked to former industrial land.
Announcing nine new “housing zones” in boroughs across London, the Chancellor said the plans would provide “a lasting solution to the housing problem in the capital.”
He revealed that the Tories also plan to earmark £84 million to pay people to leave their council properties.
The “social mobility fund” would see people offered bribes of up to £30,000 each to spend on a new home if they give up their tenancy.
Activists united under the Radical Housing Network (RHN) and backed by the Unite union plan to protest on Monday as the London Assembly votes on Mr Johnson’s budget.
A RHN spokesman said: “Boris talks the talk on housing but rather than acting to stop it, our mayor is fast-tracking social cleansing.
“Londoners are in desperate need of secure, genuinely affordable housing yet Boris Johnson, the most powerful politician in London with a housing budget close to two billion pounds at his fingertips, is acting and speaking on behalf of rich developers.”
Monday’s Block the Budget protest takes place from 9am at City Hall.