Delivering adequate housing

The following objective is from the Core Strategy.

We need to provide sufficient homes at a price that people can afford and of a type, size and quality suited to the needs of the people living in them.

The recession has had a significant impact on the housing market nationally. This is also reflected locally in Plymouth. Government has introduced the Housing Strategy to provide a boost to the UK property market. In Plymouth we have helped this process through initiatives such as the Market Recovery Action Plan.

To make sure we are progressing towards our aims there are a number of facts and figures that we monitor to help build up a picture of what is happening in the city.

Did you know that:

• In 2010/11, 557 new dwellings were built and 22 were demolished, adding 535 new homes to the housing stock.
• We continue to work with developers to assist them in delivering viable schemes.
• Despite the recession we have delivered 936 dwellings over the past two years.
• House prices in Plymouth fell by 1.5 per cent in the past year compared to 3.2 per cent nationally.
• The most affordable housing in Plymouth is 6.33 times annual income.
• 368 new homes were affordable: 66 per cent of the total.
• 96 per cent of the new dwellings were on previously developed sites.
• We built fewer flats: down from peak in 2008/09 of 83 per cent to 50 per cent in 2010/11.
• Work started on another 777 dwellings.
• 3,884 homes have planning permission but have yet to start.
• 19 per cent of the homes we approved on qualifying sites were to lifetime homes standard.
• 96 per cent of new housing was built at a density of 30 or more dwellings per hectare.

The current picture shows an uncertain housing market and property experts do not expect the market to recover until late 2012/13 at the earliest. The poor housing market conditions are a reflection of the high deposits required to secure a mortgage, and the reluctance of potential buyers to commit to house purchase due to ongoing financial uncertainty. There is evidence to suggest that it is not only first time buyers that are having problems, but that “Second Steppers” i.e. those that are on the property ladder that are looking to move up the market are also having problems securing mortgages because of negative equity. Nationally 23 per cent of people who intend to buy over the next 12 months will be first time buyers which is less than the 40 per cent required for a healthy property market.

Find out more by looking at the following sections:

• Population and housing growth
• Delivery of dwellings
• Empty homes
• Housing requirement
• Housing land supply
• Dwelling potential
• Windfall sites
• Affordable dwellings
• Affordability
• Brownfield land
• Lifetime homes
• Development characteristics

This page of the annual monitoring report was last updated December 2011.