Housing key issue for Londoners who want to see financial freedom for local government

Ipsos's polling amongst Londoners, carried out on behalf of London Councils last year, found:

• Without prompting, a quarter, 27%, mention the affordability of housing as the most important issues/among the important issues facing London, above any other issue including transport/public transport (23%), crime (14%) and immigration (10%).
• Four in five, 82%, agree there is a “housing crisis in London” (64% strongly).
• Asked to give the main reasons for the crisis (without prompting), 47% give mentions relating to affordability/house prices, 39% over-population/immigration, 37% the lack of building or supply or investment.

Other findings include:

• Londoners trust their local council to make decisions about services in their local area (57%) more so than the Greater London Authority (11%) and Central Government (10%).
• Most Londoners say they support London local government having more financial powers – for example, 42% strongly agree with the statement “London’s local government should be given greater freedom in the way it uses money raised from London taxpayers”.
• There is confidence that more freedom on spending on transport, schools and housing this will “mean more growth and jobs for London" – 73% agree this would happen while13% who disagree. 
• Download a copy of the computer tabulations (PDF)

​​​​​​Technical Note

Ipsos polled a total of 1,000 adults aged 18+ across London’s boroughs by telephone between 18 and 29 October 2013. Data has been weighted to the known London population profile.