asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Written Answer by Baroness Andrews on 1 July (WA 29–30), whether the use of the definition of affordable housing, published in Planning Policy Statement 3—Housing for measuring Housing Affordability Pressure in the consultation paper Eco-towns, Living a greener future is adequate for that purpose; and [HL4886]

Whether the use of the criterion Housing Affordability Pressure in the consultation paper Eco-towns, Living a greener future is comparable across all the bids received. [HL4945]

The definition of housing affordability pressure is “the ratio of lower quartile house price to lower quartile earnings”. This is reported annually by district and can be found on the department's website at:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/xls/152924.xls.

This was used to calculate housing affordability in the districts where an eco-town was proposed. The Government's definition of affordable housing appears in Planning Policy Statement 3—Housing and was quoted in the Written Answer of 1 July.

Housing affordability pressure in locations where eco-towns were proposed was one of a number of criteria used to shortlist eco-town proposals. When assessing all bids, the same basket of criteria was used to arrive at an overall grading for each location.