In March 2005, the Council adopted our Local Plan which outlines the planning policy guidelines for affordable housing.
The Council will negotiate with developers to ensure the provision of a proportion of affordable housing for local needs in new residential development schemes, including windfall sites, conversions and renewals of existing recently expired permissions. Under the current policy, the following thresholds apply:
Settlements of less than 3,000 population
And elsewhere
Planning policy currently requires an affordable housing contribution of 30%. In the North and Central area, this contribution rises to 90% as a housing restraint policy is in force. This means that developments within the North and Central areas of the Local Plan will comprise of 90% affordable housing. The Housing Strategy Team will be able to advise developers as to the tenure type and size, based on information from the 2006 Housing Needs Survey. The Housing Needs Survey has found that:
In rural areas, the Council can use policy H10 to enable the development of affordable housing outside the Built Up Area boundary, where there is a demonstrable local need and the site is outside the Green Belt and Special Landscape Area.
The Council preference is for registered social landlords to be involved in providing dwellings for rent and shared ownership.
For more information,