Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the criteria used to designate housing as affordable for identifying real affordability; and if he will make a statement.

On 5 March we published a draft revised National Planning Policy Framework which included a revised definition of affordable housing. This built on the consultation undertaken as part of the Housing White Paper last year. The consultation is open until 10 May.

Since 2010, we have delivered over 357,000 new affordable homes, including over 257,000 affordable homes for rent.

Affordable housing remains the Government’s priority. That’s why the Prime Minister recently announced an additional £2 billion funding for affordable housing, increasing the Affordable Homes Programme 2016-21 budget to over £9 billion to deliver a wide range of affordable housing, including social rent homes, by March 2021.