London Mayor Boris Johnson was challenged yesterday to "take a stand" over the crippling effects of land prospectors in the capital as the housing shortage crisis deepens.

Labour London Assembly member Tom Copley warned that greedy developers were "deliberately slowing down the availability of new properties" and Mr Johnson should establish a London Housing Corporation (LHC) to build homes directly.

His report Fair Housing proposes that the new organisation would tackle the backlog caused by developers deliberately restricting the supply of homes to keep prices high.