内容摘要：The remaining 427 and 459 bus routes are reserved for Winterbourne Academy students who are entitled to school transport under South Gloucestershire Council's

The remaining 427 and 459 bus routes are reserved for Winterbourne Academy students who are entitled to school transport under South Gloucestershire Council's

Harrow, Bexley and Richmond-upon-Thames council areas and the City of London each saw only one new affordable property started, the data shows.Changes to the planning system, along with increased funding and making local housing targets mandatory, will improve the situation, a government spokesman said.

Affordable housing is a wide-ranging category which includes properties let at rents of no more than 80% of local market rates, as well as shared ownership homes and social rent properties which are set at about 50% of market levels.London’s 88% reduction in affordable homes started in the last financial year compares with a 39% fall across the whole of England.The data shows work began on just two in Kensington and Chelsea, and three each in Brent, Enfield and Lambeth.

The London boroughs which saw the most affordable homes started in 2023/24 were Barking and Dagenham (584 starts, down from 1,021 the previous year), Greenwich (406, down from 2,615) and Redbridge (351, down from 575).A spokeswoman for London Councils, the capital’s local government association, said although London saw more council-built homes started in 2022 than any year since the 1970s, market conditions for starting to build new housing were "currently incredibly tough".

"There are 287,000 potential new homes in London with planning permission, including 70,000 affordable homes, that have yet to be built," she said.

"There are a lot of barriers to unlocking these sites – such as skyrocketing construction costs, and in recent years, a lack of capital funding and infrastructure.If you have the stomach for it, you can climb the narrow crumbling stone spiral staircase to reach the roof of St Nicholas' Church in Rodmersham.

From the top of the Norman church you get a panoramic view of north Kent. Directly below there is an apple orchard, beyond that fields of arable farmland with the occasional house, and in the distance the town of Sittingbourne, silhouettes of Thames Estuary heavy industry visible against the sky.This is the land where Quinn Estates developers want to build 8,400 homes, new schools and a new road.

"It's an absolutely colossal development, it will have a devastating impact on this area," says Monique Bonney.She grew up in Rodmersham and after living and working across the world returned to the village. She got married in St Nicholas' Church and has been an independent councillor for the area for 18 years.