To: Brandon Lewis, Minister of State for Housing and Planning
Reclassify what constitutes an affordable new home.
Redefine "affordable housing" as housing that can actually be purchased by people who earn the current "living wage" rather than as proportion of the current market value.
Why is this important?
The government's promise to provide greater numbers of "affordable housing" sounds good, the problem is that these homes are just not affordable to most people wishing to purchase their first home.
Re-defining "affordable housing" to housing that can actually be afforded by families earning the national living wage would mean that these homes that the government has legislated could be bought by families who are currently priced out of ever buying their first home. With the erosion of social housing a growing problem, and for families not fortunate enough to have higher incomes and large deposits, many new and young families in particular are at the mercy of profiteering private landlords. Keeping the current requirements for affordable housing by developers, but making it realistically affordable, might start to address this problem.
Re-defining "affordable housing" to housing that can actually be afforded by families earning the national living wage would mean that these homes that the government has legislated could be bought by families who are currently priced out of ever buying their first home. With the erosion of social housing a growing problem, and for families not fortunate enough to have higher incomes and large deposits, many new and young families in particular are at the mercy of profiteering private landlords. Keeping the current requirements for affordable housing by developers, but making it realistically affordable, might start to address this problem.
