Affordable Housing SPD - Adopted February 2008
There are major housing affordability problems across the district. A significant proportion of the population is unable to afford to buy or rent properties on the open market. The provision of additional affordable housing is a key Council priority and also a major theme in the Community Strategy.
One way of providing new affordable homes is to use planning powers to ensure that a proportion of housing on new development sites is set aside for affordable housing. Local Plan Policy H5 provides the basis for this approach.
The Council had produced a supplementary planning document (SPD) setting out in more detail how this policy will be implemented.
The SPD relates only to those developments to which policy H5 would apply. It will not deal with forms of development, for instance rural exception sites. Further guidance will be provided on these forms of development through, for example, the Local Development Framework.
Anyone wishing to develop housing on sites to which Policy H5 will apply should take into account the requirements of this SPD at a very early stage. The policies contained therein will form the basis for decisions on planning applications.
The SPD and associated documents can be accessed from the link on the right.