No council houses

London boroughs with the highest property prices are failing to build low-cost homes for their poorest residents, according to a study by GMB, one of Britain's largest unions. It further highlights the social divide in the capital's housing market. Six out of the capital's 10 most expensive boroughs built below-average levels of low-cost rental housing in the last year. Half of all the city's boroughs built fewer than 100 social homes last year, according to the report

In London's financial district, the City of London, and in the suburban commuter boroughs of Kingston upon Thames and Harrow, no social homes were built in 2016-2017. In the elegant west London borough of Kensington and Chelsea, where the blaze killed at least 80 people and destroyed 127 apartments, only 76 social homes were built in the last year. 

"The growth in the population in the region combined with the failure... to complete enough new homes has led to sky-high house prices and ballooning private rents. This is not sustainable," said Warren Kenny, secretary of GMB London.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said earlier this month that his growing city needs to build 50,000 homes each year.