HC Deb 14 May 2004 vol 421 cc649-50W
Mr. Edward Davey

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what his Department's definition of affordable housing is. [172879]

Keith Hill

For the purposes of Government funding, a working definition of affordable housing is housing available at social rents (i.e. subject to the rent restructuring regime) or other forms of submarket housing, which can generally only be accessed by existing social tenants or people on waiting lists or others groups specifically identified, such as key workers, with other groups having much lower priority.

For the purposes of planning decisions, guidance (PPG3) puts the onus on local planning authorities to define affordable housing in terms of the relationship between local income levels and housing prices or rents for different types and sizes of housing, and housing for identified groups such as key workers, and for these definitions to be based on an up-to-date assessment of housing needs.