AFFORDABLE homes are not currently being built at a quick enough rate for Ealing Council to reach its targets but it is argued future developments will change this.

In the council's ‘Development Strategy 2026’ document a target of building 7,000 affordable homes was set.

The current annual rate of 320 affordable homes means they will only build 4,480 homes by 2026.

Council figures show that between 2012, when the target was set, and 2016 only 1,280 affordable homes were built in the borough.

The council remains undeterred as Councillor Jasbir Anand, cabinet member for housing, said: “We are confident that we will achieve our target for affordable homes by 2026.

“We are delivering a new supply of affordable housing by developing surplus council owned land, such as unused garages and hostel sites.

“This innovative approach has seen the council recognised as a leader in the field, actively engaged in building new homes on a reasonably large scale for the first time in over 30 years.

“This has helped increase the availability of affordable housing in Ealing and is delivering the new homes that are so desperately needed."

The council sees future developments such as the Southall gas works and the South Acton estate regeneration project as big strides towards more affordable homes.

Southall gas works should result in around 4,000 homes with 1,300 of them being affordable while South Acton estate’s regeneration will create 1,400 affordable homes.

The Southall developments’ first phase of construction is due to be completed by mid 2018 but the overall scheme will take 25 years to finish.

The South Acton regeneration, which is run by joint venture partners Countryside and L&Q, was granted planning permission two weeks ago for its sixth phase which will create 308 new homes in the area of which 138 will be affordable rent and intermediate properties.

Jerome Geoghegan, L&Q’s group director of development and sales said: “We’re delighted that the London Borough of Ealing have given the go ahead for this next phase which will deliver further high quality new housing with real benefits for the local community and an important step forward towards the completion of this ambitious masterplan.”

Lack of affordable housing has been a priority issue for new London mayor Sadiq Khan.

The mayor has said he wanted more than 50% of homes on some new housing developments to be affordable at lower social rents or “London living rent”, which is a third of average incomes.

A Mayor of London spokesperson said: “The Mayor was elected on a mandate to fix the housing crisis left behind by his predecessor and build thousands of genuinely affordable homes for Londoners.

“He looks forward to working with local authorities, developers and housing associations to deliver the homes the city so desperately needs.”

The Department for Communities and Local Government last Thursday released figures showing that 139,690 affordable houses in England were built in 2015/16 which is a year on year increase of 12 per cent.

Housing and homeless charity Shelter believe that, despite the rise, more needs to be done as England needs 250,000 affordable homes.

Campbell Robb, chief executive of Shelter, said: “The government has promised to build a million homes by 2020, yet these figures show one of the biggest quarterly falls in the number of homes built that we’ve seen for a decade.

“We’re still only building a little over half the homes we need each year and it’s simply not good enough.”