Wandsworth Council has agreed to revise its affordable homes policy following pressure from the Government's planning inspector.

The revised unitary development plan is to propose that developers work to a figure of 25 per cent affordable housing on new developments and has set a target of 1,000 affordable new homes by 2006.

Local unions have already labelled it a council "climbdown" and called the news "a massive victory for local teachers and thousands of other workers who have been systematically priced out of the borough".

Wandsworth Council's view, however, remains that across-the-board quotas are unworkable and it has stated the 25 per cent figure is a guideline for developers to work towards.

The council said it always had encouraged affordable housing on new developments but did not insist on the quota for every site as that would "put developers off", instead adopting a more flexible stance.

Opposition Labour councillor, Sadiq Khan, called it fantastic news for residents. He said: "The Labour government and the London mayor have set realistic and sensible targets for the provision of affordable housing. At last Wandsworth Council is coming on board."

But leader of the council Councillor Edward Lister said: "The approach to new development reasserts the council's rejection of doctrinaire policies which if imposed indiscriminately would cause the current healthy supply of new affordable homes to dry up."

The inspector, appointed by the secretary of state, published his report in May which attacked the council's definition of "affordable" - which was any housing affordable to people on low or medium incomes, not just social housing - and the 700 council homes sold under the right to buy scheme which were included in a council tally of affordable housing.

However, a council spokesman added: "The Government's definitions are really quite broad. We would say we were right to include those. Those ex-council properties when resold provide their own pool of affordable accommodation."

January 28, 2003 11:00