Bromley started 356 affordable homes in 2025-26, up from 3 a year earlier, as London beat its target. City Hall published the figures on 10 November 2026.
Bromley started building 356 affordable homes through City Hall’s programmes in 2025-26, up from just 3 the year before. That put the borough ninth of London’s 33 local authorities, according to figures the Greater London Authority published on Tuesday 10 November.
The same day, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, announced that London had beaten the top of its Government target for the 2021 to 2026 Affordable Homes Programme. City Hall recorded 21,001 starts under that £4 billion programme, 2,001 above the upper target of 19,000.
Bromley’s numbers
The borough figures come from Table 2 of the GLA’s starts and completions spreadsheet. It counts every affordable home started on site in each borough through any GLA programme. Bromley’s year-by-year starts were:
- 2021-22: 136
- 2022-23: 423
- 2023-24: 33
- 2024-25: 3, joint 29th of 33
- 2025-26: 356, ninth in London
- April to September 2026: 112
Most of last year’s starts are for the lowest rents. Of the 356, the GLA counts 300 as social rent (a column that includes London Affordable Rent set at social rent levels). Another 35 are London Living Rent homes and 21 are other affordable rent.
Bromley completed 81 affordable homes through GLA programmes in 2025-26.
How Bromley compares
Last year’s jump stands out against the borough’s neighbours. In 2025-26, GLA programmes started:
- Lewisham: 465
- Bromley: 356
- Croydon: 324
- Bexley: 53
Over the full five years from April 2021 to March 2026, the picture is less flattering. Bromley’s 951 starts are the 26th highest total of the 33 authorities. Croydon started 1,533 in the same five years and Lewisham 1,509. Bexley started 711.
Those five-year totals cover all GLA programmes, so they are not the same count as the 21,001 homes measured against the Mayor’s target. The GLA does not break that 21,001 down by borough.
The two lean years were not just Bromley’s. City Hall says higher construction and borrowing costs made it harder to get developments under way across London. It also blames new building safety requirements and delays at the Building Safety Regulator.
Council homes
City Hall keeps a separate table of council homes built through its programmes. For Bromley it shows:
- 2024-25: no council home starts
- 2025-26: 111 starts and 61 completions
- April to September 2026: 104 starts and 67 completions
The table does not name schemes. The council’s own recent approvals include 42 homes on Poverest Road in Orpington and 10 on Castlecombe Road in Mottingham, and 68 council homes are being built at Bellegrove in St Paul’s Cray.
What the Mayor and the Government said
The target City Hall beat had been moved twice. It was set at 35,000 in 2021, cut to between 23,900 and 27,200 in 2023, then to between 17,800 and 19,000 in March 2025 “after significant increase in inflation and borrowing costs”, in the GLA’s words.
Sadiq Khan said: “I’m hugely proud that we’ve exceeded the Government target. Councils, housing associations, and housebuilders across London have worked hard to get these homes under way in some of the toughest conditions for housebuilding in years, and today’s figures show that our collective work is delivering for Londoners.
“Building more social and affordable homes is a top priority and I’m taking the tough decisions needed to get them built.
“I know we’ve still got a long way to go to tackle the housing crisis. I’m working closely with the Government to agree temporary emergency measures to get stalled sites moving. We’ve also secured funding to help build thousands more social and affordable homes over the next decade to ensure we deliver the homes Londoners desperately need, as we build a better London for everyone.”
Angela Rayner, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, said: “Londoners deserve decent, affordable homes and it’s encouraging to see the capital exceeding its target, as we continue to turn the tide on the housing crisis.
“We know we need to go further though, and we’ll continue to work closely with the Mayor, with up to £11.7 billion made available to get stalled sites moving and build the social and affordable homes families desperately need.”
What comes next
The next programme, the London Social and Affordable Homes Programme for 2026 to 2036, has up to £11.7 billion of Government money behind it. City Hall says it has already offered at least £6 billion in the first round of allocations, with 60 per cent going to councils to build council housing. It has not said how much of that has been offered to Bromley.
In March, the Mayor and the Government also agreed a package of temporary measures for stalled sites. It includes a time-limited fast-track planning route for eligible developments and £324 million for City Hall’s Developer Investment Fund (GOV.UK).
What it means for you
A start is not a finished home. It means work has begun on site, and the homes counted last year will mostly be let or sold over the next few years. For households on Bromley’s housing register, the queue is long: we set out how many households are waiting when the Bellegrove scheme broke ground. For other schemes going through the system, see our Bromley planning applications page.
City Hall publishes the next quarter’s figures, covering April to December 2026, on Tuesday 9 February 2027.
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