**Cause:** The Government's top-down housing targets (nearly doubled in the MP's area, from 885 to 1,660 homes/year in St Albans district). **Effect:** Failure to deliver the affordable homes the area needs. The claim is a judgment that the Government's imposed housing targets are not translating into genuinely affordable homes for local people. The evidence supports this concern on several fronts, though the causal attribution to the *targets themselves* is partial. **Local delivery failure is well-documented.** St Albans City & District Council's own Housing Delivery Test Action Plan (2024) confirms it delivered only 52% of the government's housing target. Affordable housing completions have been modest — 68 (17% of total) in 2022/23 and 129 (29%) in 2023/24. The draft Local Plan proposes just 1,200 social rent properties out of roughly 15,000 homes — under 8%. The council's own Housing Strategy prioritizes "increasing the delivery of social housing," implicitly acknowledging current shortfalls. **The affordability definition undermines the claim's premise.** Multiple authoritative sources — the House of Commons Library, CPRE, and the Affordable Housing Commission — confirm that "affordable housing" defined as up to 80% of market value is not genuinely affordable in high-cost areas. In the MP's constituency, where median new builds exceed £750,000, "affordable" homes can still cost over £500,000–£600,000. The government's own documents acknowledge this disconnect. **The Section 106 delivery mechanism is in documented crisis.** The government's own policy statement acknowledges "thousands of constructed or consented S106 units are currently uncontracted and unsold," disrupting affordable housing supply. Industry data shows S106 starts dropped 76% between 2020/21 and 2023/24, with over half of Registered Providers either no longer purchasing or reducing S106 acquisitions. Since S106 is the primary mechanism through which top-down targets produce affordable homes, this collapse directly undermines delivery. **However, the causal link to the targets specifically is not fully established.** The S106 crisis is driven by factors independent of the targets — Registered Provider financial capacity, building costs, remediation obligations, and financing conditions. Local under-delivery (52% of target) predates the new targets. Nationally, Homes England's 2025/26 statistics show affordable housing starts and completions *increasing* (12% and 14% respectively), and the government has launched a £39 billion Social and Affordable Homes Programme with 60% earmarked for Social Rent. The targets themselves increase demanded housing volume but do not directly address the delivery mechanisms' failures. The evidence makes the link between the current target-driven approach and failure to deliver genuinely affordable homes reasonable and likely — particularly because the S106 mechanism that connects targets to affordable delivery is in crisis, and the affordability definition produces homes that remain out of reach in high-cost areas like the MP's constituency. However, the targets themselves are not decisively established as the primary causal factor; the delivery mechanisms' failures (S106 collapse, RP capacity, affordability definition) are at least as important, and these predate and operate independently of the new targets. Sources: - St Albans City & District Council, Housing Delivery Test Action Plan 2024 (https://www.stalbans.gov.uk/sites/default/files/attachments/Housing%20Delivery%20Test%20Action%20Plan%202024_0.pdf) - Homes England / GOV.UK, Housing Statistics June 2026 (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/housing-statistics-1-april-2025-to-31-march-2026/housing-statistics-june-2026-html) - GOV.UK, Policy statement: a roadmap for Section 106 delivery in England (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/policy-statement-a-roadmap-for-section-106-delivery-in-england/policy-statement-a-roadmap-for-section-106-delivery-in-england) - GOV.UK, Delivering a decade of renewal for social and affordable housing (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/delivering-a-decade-of-renewal-for-social-and-affordable-housing/delivering-a-decade-of-renewal-for-social-and-affordable-housing) - House of Commons Library, What is affordable housing? (https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7747/) - CPRE, Redefining Affordability briefing (https://www.cpre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Redefining_Affordability_-_A_CPRE_Briefing.pdf) - Savills, The challenges of unlocking Section 106 delivery, July 2024 (https://pdf.euro.savills.co.uk/uk/residential---other/the-challenges-of-unlocking-section-106-delivery---july-2024..pdf) - Building magazine, What does the collapse in section 106 demand mean for housing delivery? (https://www.building.co.uk/focus/what-does-the-collapse-in-section-106-demand-mean-for-housing-delivery/5131120.article) - Herts Advertiser, Harpenden MP calls for 'urgent' review of housing targets (https://www.hertsad.co.uk/news/26166597.harpenden-mp-calls-urgent-review-housing-targets/)