The actual definition of "Affordable Housing"

One of the most tiresome housing activism games is pretending that "affordable housing" means "housing that is affordable". The people who do this do not go around pretending that other phrases and terms of art don't have their generally accepted meanings.

For example: "redhead" means a person with ginger hair. It does not mean "a head that is red". This is a perfectly normal phenomenon: some combinations of words come to have a meaning of their own, that isn't the literal meaning of their parts. It's sometimes called a "lexical compound".

The purported inability to understand these terms is always completely selective and self-serving.

Where is "affordable housing" defined?

It's not a housing tenure term. It comes from the UK's planning laws. See, for example, the National Planning Policy Framework:

At Annex 2, the exact definition is supplied:

Affordable housing: housing for sale or rent, for those whose needs are not met by the market (including housing that provides a subsidised route to home ownership and/or is for essential local workers); and which complies with one or more of the following definitions90:

a) Social Rent: meets all of the following conditions: (a) the rent is set in accordance with the Government’s rent policy for Social Rent; (b) the landlord is a registered provider; and (c) it includes provisions to remain at an affordable price for future eligible households, or for the subsidy to be recycled for alternative affordable housing provision.

b) Other affordable housing for rent: meets all of the following conditions: (a) the rent is set in accordance with the Government’s rent policy for Affordable Rent, or is at least 20% below local market rents (including service charges where applicable); (b) the landlord is a registered provider, except where it is included as part of a Build to Rent scheme (in which case the landlord need not be a registered provider); and (c) it includes provisions to remain at an affordable price for future eligible households, or for the subsidy to be recycled for alternative affordable housing provision. For Build to Rent schemes affordable housing for rent is expected to be the normal form of affordable housing provision (and, in this context, is known as Affordable Private Rent).

c) Discounted market sales housing: is that sold at a discount of at least 20% below local market value. Eligibility is determined with regard to local incomes and local house prices. Provisions should be in place to ensure housing remains at a discount for future eligible households.

d) Other affordable routes to home ownership: is housing provided for sale that provides a route to ownership for those who could not achieve home ownership through the market. It includes shared ownership, relevant equity loans, other low cost homes for sale (at a price equivalent to at least 20% below local market value) and rent to buy (which includes a period of intermediate rent). Where public grant funding is provided, there should be provisions for the homes to remain at an affordable price for future eligible households, or for any receipts to be recycled for alternative affordable housing provision, or refunded to Government or the relevant authority specified in the funding agreement.

That's it. That the definition of Affordable Housing. The people who hijack every mention of the term, to say "it isn't actually affordable" don't have an argument. Or they have an argument that can't be translated into a different language, which always a tell.

There are real injustices in this space. Every conversation predicated on pretending not to understand a term of art is a conversation about something other than ending the injustices.