"Affordable housing" should be scrubbed from Labour lingo, according to party members in Hounslow , because the term is so misleading.

Homes available for rent at up to 80% of market rates qualify as "affordable", under the official government definition.

But Brentford & Isleworth Labour Party says a typical family wishing to buy such a home would need an annual wage of £44,000 - £17,000 more than the national average wage of £27,000.

It passed a motion on Wednesday, January 27, calling for the Labour Party nationally and locally to stop using the term without qualification.

Crispin Flintoff, who proposed the motion, said: "The idea that these houses are 'affordable' is laughable. This government is trying to bamboozle people with word games.

Labour Party member Crispin Flintoff, who proposed the motion on affordable housing

"It's time the Labour Party stopped going along with this charade and I'm really pleased that we have made a commitment not to talk building 'affordable' homes in our literature or any manifestos unless they are 'based on average incomes not average rents or sales values'."

The approved motion calls on Hounslow Council not to "do the government's work" by celebration the construction of luxury developments simply because they include "affordable housing".

It also states that future manifestos should not include pledges to build "affordable housing".

The Labour administration in Hounslow pledged in 2014 to secure a further 3,000 affordable homes, including 400 new council homes, by 2018.