So-called “affordable housing” is a con. It isn’t affordable for the people who most need housing; it is merely housing rented out at 80 per cent of the market cost, which is still unaffordable for young people, especially in the South Hams.

When councils and developers try to convince the public that a proposed housing development is a social good, they boast of the proportion of affordable housing. That, of course, tends to persuade people to go along with such developments. But it’s misleading if people don’t know what affordable housing really is.

The Plymouth and South West Devon Joint Local Plan, http://plymouth.consult.limehouse.co.uk/common/unsubscribe.jsp?guid=2E03525F-71C2-15C2-4D7B-424A5B96479D, now open for comment, ought to address this national con. And it ought to be insisting on genuinely affordable, much-needed, subsidised housing in South West Devon. Why isn’t it?

Minette Marrin, West Charleton