Let’s not shy away from using the ‘s’ word

JENNIFER Dunn, in her article on rural housing (“Local answer to countryside housing crisis”, Yorkshire Post, August 5), used the term “affordable housing” throughout.

If the term means anything at all, it means housing provided for sale or for rent at lower than the market price.In other words, subsidised housing.

If only we could bring ourselves to use the “s” word, it would help to focus attention on the source of the subsidy, without which there can be no useful discussion on the subject.

Is it to be a direct financial subsidy from central or local government? Or in the form of free or cheap land from local government or a body such as the Church of England?

Or a concession allowing land to be developed which would not otherwise obtain planning consent for housing?

Or in the form of a planning condition requiring private developers to provide a quota of houses at below market price?

Like so many, Jennifer Dunn eloquently and accurately described the problems, but without identifying any solutions.

Nor are the problems she describes confined to rural areas: the average house price in rural areas may be 5.4 times the average earnings there but the differential is even greater in London, for example.