AFFORDABLE housing has been deemed ‘suitable’ in Barnsley, a new study suggests.

Housing justice charity Shelter said the government has prioritised investment in affordable homes and called for sustained investment in cheaper social housing instead.

It comes after the government announced a £500m investment into the existing Affordable Homes Programme in the Autumn Budget, aimed at delivering up to 5,000 social and affordable homes.

New research by Shelter has deemed affordable homes in Barnsley ‘affordable’.

Analysis of Office for National Statistics data shows the median weekly affordable rent for a one-bed property in Barnsley is £65.

Meanwhile, the 25th percentile of weekly gross pay in the area is £425.

It means a person in Barnsley living in affordable housing and earning this wage will spend around 15 per cent of their income on rent.

The ONS deems an area ‘affordable’ if a private-renting household spends 30 per cent or less of their gross pay on rent.

Income from benefits was not included in Shelter’s research as it is difficult to estimate.

Regardless of benefit income, the charity argued ‘affordable housing ought to be affordable to an individual in work without needing government support via benefits’.

The research found 42 per cent of areas across England have ‘unaffordable’ affordable housing.

Such housing is most unaffordable in Lewes, East Sussex, at £798 a month - which represents 55 per cent of pay for the lowest quarter of local earners.

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “For decades now we’ve been haemorrhaging social homes and instead of replacing them, money is instead being funnelled into so called ‘affordable homes’, which too often just aren’t affordable to people on low incomes.”