Sadiq Khan has been slammed after a new report revealed a new London housing scandal, in which up to 15 people are living inside illegal HMOs. The BBC has exposed a widespread black market in the rental sector, with people crammed into unsafe spaces within victorian homes originally build for small families.
Photos show Londoners living in unsanitary homes, with adults sleeping on bare mattresses, surrounded by mould and rats. The law states that Homes of Multiple Occupancy (HMO) must have a licence to ensure the homes can meet gas, electrical and fire safety requirements. However there is evidence that in at least three areas of London, there could be more illegal HMOs than legal ones.
In 2023, a HMO in east London saw 18 people crammed into a two-bedroom flat on the night a major fire broke out, resulting in at least one death.
Earlier this year the landlords, Aminur Rahman and Sofina Begum, were fined just £90,000.
According to letting agency review site Marks Out Of Tenancy, in parts of Newham there are only 75 licensed properties, but more than 700 possible HMOs.
In Tower Hamlets the website suspects there are nearly 500 HMOs, while the council lists just 50.
According to Freedom of Information requests, just one in three complaints raised by renters in England between 2021 and 2023 were inspected by the relevant council.
Susan Hall, the leader of the Tories in City Hall, told the Express “heads must roll” over the scandal.
She blasted: “London’s housing crisis, which Sadiq Khan has exacerbated by refusing to get a grip on housebuilding, has driven the rise in HMOs across our city.
“And with the rise in demand, it is only natural that unscrupulous and exploitative landlords will seek to cash in.
“It is a disgusting practice, and I pity those exploited by it – as well as the communities who see these illegal HMOs pop up in their neighbourhood and transform the street. Heads must roll.”
Figures from the National House Building Council (NHBC) showed that just 904 new homes were registered in the capital in the second quarter of 2025, down by nearly 60% on the year before.
Registrations stood at around 7,000 for the same quarter a decade ago.
The NHBC has blamed the mounting cost of regulations, and Mr Khan’s strict affordable homes quotas.
The Mayor has set a rule that private house builders must ensure 35% of the homes within each development are affordable, with builders saying this is too high to turn a profit.
Figures show that in the first month of the year, work began on just 1,100 new homes across the whole capital, while Mr Khan has a target of building 88,000 homes each year.