The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 21st May 2025:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government whether they plan to redefine affordable housing according to local incomes instead of market rates.
Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab, MHCLG): The government believes that affordable housing must be affordable to local people and address local needs. This is why we amended the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to give local authorities greater flexibility to deliver the right mix of affordable homes to respond to housing need in their areas, while also making clear that they should address the particular needs of those who require Social Rent homes.
To reflect the government’s commitment to prioritise the building of new Social Rent homes, we amended the definition of affordable housing in the NPPF to provide a separate definition of Social Rent – rather than referring to it as just one of a number of types of affordable housing for rent. We have also committed that new investment to succeed the current Affordable Homes Programme will have a particular focus on delivering Social Rent homes.
We will consider what further steps we can take to support social and affordable housing as part of our intent to produce a set of national policies for decision making in 2025.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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