Affordable Housing

Government guidance is principally contained within Circular 6/98, Planning and Affordable Housing, published in 1998, and Planning Policy Guidance Note 3: Housing (PPG3) published in March 2000.

Circular 6/98 states that A community's need for affordable housing is a material planning consideration which may properly be taken into account in formulating development plan policies, and deciding planning applications.  Where there is evidence of need, local planning authorities should include affordable housing policies in their local plans.

Both PPG 3, and Circular 6/98 stress the need for the requirement to provide affordable housing to be based upon up to date information and to limit its application to developments above a minimum threshold, mainly on sites of 25 dwellings or more. In addition Local authorities should:

• Identify the overall amount of affordable accommodation that is required within the plan period.  This should include subsidised, and low cost market houses for sale or rent, which will be available for people who cannot afford to compete for housing in the open markets.
• Define through the local plan the levels at which properties are  considered to be affordable. This should be related to house prices and local income levels.
• Identify suitable sites on which affordable housing will be provided, and the amount to be provided on that site.
• To ensure that affordable houses are controlled in order that they are genuinely available to those who require them.
• To work closely with housing departments to monitor the provision of affordable housing secured by the local authority.

Where an appropriate policy is included within the Development Plan, a local authority may refuse an application for residential development that fails to deliver the required level of affordable housing in accordance with the adopted policy.

Affordable housing is also addressed in a number of other government documents including the Urban and Rural White Papers (Towns and Cities Today, and our Countryside Future, respectively) and more recently in the Green Paper entitled Planning Obligations Delivering a Fundamental Change.

RPG 10 was published by the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, in September 2001.  This document sets out a broad development strategy for the period up to 2016 and beyond within which Local Authorities in the South West prepare development plans and local transport plans.

The key housing objectives of RPG 10 include:

• The need to provide everyone in the South West with the opportunity for a decent home;
• To give priority to the reuse of previously developed land in urban areas
• To return empty homes back to use, in preference to development of greenfield sites;
• To create sustainable and mixed communities, giving a choice of housing by type, size and tenure;
• Creating sustainable patterns of development;
• Promoting new housing and residential environments which are well designed and make a contribution to urban renaissance and improving the quality of life.

The RPG sets the levels of additional housing for which provision should be made in the Region's Structure Plans over the period 1996 to 2016.  It acknowledges that many households within the region have insufficient resources to buy or rent property on the open market. Policy HO3; Affordable Housing states:

"Local Authorities, Social Housing Providers and other agencies in their relevant plans, policies and programmes should aim to ensure that sufficient affordable housing is provided in order to meet community needs in both urban and rural areas. This should involve

The identification of targets in development plans indicating the levels or affordable housing required in each area; this should be based on local housing needs assessments undertaken to consistent standards across the region, which take into account both need and supply site considerations;

• Setting out the circumstances, in accordance with Circular 6/98, which would justify the application of lower thresholds for the inclusion of affordable housing in new developments (i.e. down to 15 dwellings or 0.5 hectares in urban areas).  Where local authorities can demonstrate that local circumstances, particularly the likely viability of developments, justify adopting a lower threshold, they should bring proposals forward through the development plans system;
• Encouraging partnership approaches to the assessment and delivery of affordable housing by local authorities, registered social landlords, developers and other agencies operating the same broad local housing market area; and
• Making the most of existing housing stock in meeting housing needs including, where appropriate, the purchase by registered social landlords of dwellings on the open market, especially in areas where it would otherwise by difficult to deliver affordable housing and where this would help the development of mixed communities."

First Deposit City of Plymouth Local Plan identifies sufficient capacity in the city for 9249 dwellings in the period 1995, to 2011.Of these 6081 remain to be developed in the plan period 2001-2011. The plan also provides the planning framework for the provision of affordable housing taking into consideration the advice contained in national and regional polices.

Whilst provision is normally expected to be made on site, national guidance, and Policy 34 of the Local Plan allow in exceptional circumstances off site provision to be made The judgement as the whether off site provision is acceptable will be based on a number of factors including the desire to achieve balanced communities, and the individual site circumstances in terms of its location, accessibility, commercial factors and difficulties of development.