Last week Damian wrote to Matthew Pennycook, Minister of State for housing, to follow up on a number of points that were raised during his Westminster Hall debate on the Cumulative impacts of housing development (which took place just before Christmas).
In this letter, Damian raised concerns about the affordability adjustment factor within the government’s 'Standard Method formula' for calculating housing need, which could push targets even higher over time, and which risks skewing development away from more affordable homes.
New homes locally are very often priced above the existing median. As a result, the median house price rises and the affordability ratio worsens, even as overall housing supply increases.
Damian also highlighted this in Ministerial questions in the House of Commons (clip above from 12 January 2026), and reiterated the central point that we need to reverse the shift of the government's housing targets towards rural areas, which has seen a doubling of the target for East Hampshire.
Damian extends his thanks to Nick Stenning for his valuable insights on this subject.
