The mayor campaigns today on the issue of providing affordable homes, and he is right to make it a priority. Figures Mr Livingstone has released for the past year show a doubling in new affordable homes. Yet his record on the issue has made little overall difference to the housing shortage.

Part of the problem is that the Mayor's insistence that 50 per cent of homes in a development should be defined as affordable has not always delivered the highest possible number of new, low-price properties. Some schemes have been delayed or cancelled, where a more flexible approach might have delivered results. Others have included supposedly affordable units which, in fact, require far-higher-than-average earnings to buy.

The Mayor also risks more conflict with town halls by attacking the record of Conservative-run boroughs as he does today. He is set to acquire new planning and housing powers but it is unhelpful to politicise the housing issue by criticising councils elected by residents who do not want new development. And while provision by housing associations has gone up during his time in office, that is no thanks to him: they are not controlled by City Hall.

Mr Livingstone puts his finger on a key concern for the capital's residents. But his own initiatives have to date failed to solve a key problem for the capital - and it is hard to see today's measures transforming that situation.

• 

  Picasso & Modern British Art - review

  Tate Britain's exhibition is an exploration of Picasso's influence on seven English contemporaries

  ---

• 

  Ken Livingstone's friends in the East

  The Mayor of Tower Hamlets defeated Labour to be elected. Livingstone not only backed him but some of Ken's key players are now at the heart of running the council. Stephen Robinson reports

  ---