Independent London mayoral candidate Rory Stewart is promising to build 250,000 homes in the capital within five years – and threatening developers with a “use it or lose it” ultimatum on mothballed sites in order to meet that target.

The former Conservative MP and Tory leadership candidate said if elected to lead City Hall in May he would immediately set up a mayor’s building company to build hundreds of thousands of homes.

He said rent would be linked to people’s incomes rather than an average wage.

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