• “AFFORDABLE homes” rears its ugly head again, (‘Tower block does not have enough affordable homes’, June 3).

This is a technical term coined by Grant Shapps in 2010 to be a rate equal to 20 per cent off private / commercial prices. It follows that if a flat in a private block goes for a rent of £1,000 per week, an affordable rent will be £800.

If it is to be sold for £1.25million, then an affordable flat would sell for £1million. (In one project, this classification simply evaporated in five years). To class these as affordable is clearly ludicrous.

A category of housing which is 20 per cent off should be scrapped; it serves no purpose. We need a cost consistent with council and housing association rates.

What word should be used is a matter for debate. Personally I don’t like the word “social”. We could consider “reasonable” or classify the rate by letter, “type P” for private and “type C” for a new community rate.

I call on the council leader, Georgia Gould, to get through a new law declaring it to be the offence of an intention to deceive to use “affordable” when applied to housing.

PETER RUTHERFORD
Pandora Road, NW6