Ratcliffe, assistant director of programme policy and services within the housing and land directorate, believes mayor of London Boris Johnson is on track to deliver on his pledge to build 55,000 new homes by March 2015, however after that date he expects completions to plummet.
He was speaking at the Policy Forum for London Keynote Seminar along with David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, who announced his intention to run as London mayor in 2016 last month by releasing a set of proposals on housing.
Ratcliffe said: “We are delivering record amounts of housing this year, but it will drop off next year because it was focused on delivering completions for March 2015.
“[there is a] need for a long-term sustainable and dedicated funding stream which will enable us deliver housing long-term.
“With a long-term housing settlement you can smooth that out which makes it more straight-forward for the industry.”
“At the moment we have spending round settlements which might last three or four years.”
Ratcliffe defended Johnson, whom he said has come in for some unfair criticism.
He added: “You hear quite a lot in the press that the mayor is failing to meet his affordable housing targets and it’s simply not true
“There was a manifesto pledge in 2012 to build around 55,000 homes by 2015 – we’re on track to do that.
“If you look at affordable housing delivery this year it looks like there is going to be the most affordable homes since 1980.”
