Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has criticised Boris Johnson’s flagship scheme that aimed to stop new homes in the capital being sold off-plan as ‘golden bricks’ to overseas investors.

The previous mayor’s ‘Concordat’ scheme was originally unveiled as the solution to stop major developers advertising London homes abroad first for overseas buyers, often many months before ordinary Londoners had the chance to purchase them.

Over 50 developers signed up to the pledge to prioritise home buyers in the capital and the previous administration hailed the scheme a success, says Khan.

However, Khan criticised the previous mayor for designing a ‘toothless’ Concordat that meant homes could still be launched overseas at the same time they were made available in London, with nothing in place as to whether the signatories to the Concordat were keeping to their promises.

There were no powers or processes to enforce the marketing activities of the signatories, and when it was broken – as Khan claims evidence suggests – there was no effective sanction.

Consequently, only one organisation was ever found to have breached the Concordat, and this was due to a national paper alerting the previous administration. The case involved a developer targeting Hong Kong customers before Londoners.

Yesterday, during Mayor’s Question Time, Khan said the ‘golden bricks’ affair would be part of an ongoing audit of the housing crisis in London.

He said: “We all know that Boris Johnson left the cupboard bare on housing in London, and it will be a hard and long process to fix his mess.

“The previous Mayor’s ‘Concordat’ is yet another housing failure we have inherited – a scheme that claimed to help Londoners get first dibs on new properties but in reality did nothing to stop the problem of London homes being sold off-plan as gold bricks to overseas investors.”