“Concerning the issue of affordable housing, the policy of the Local Plan sets out a target of 50% affordable housing for residential development in Sidmouth.”
“Local planning authorities specify a percentage of affordable housing that developers have to provide. But these policies are not all-powerful”
“In essence, financial viability assessments provide a loophole for developers to escape their affordable housing obligations.”
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A FAILURE OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT PROMISES ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING
In September, the government produced a report on its programme to sell of state-owned land for housing:
Public Land for Housing programme 2015 to 2020: concluding summary report – GOV.UK
The housing industry was not impressed:
More than half of the development sites transferred to Homes England under the government’s flagship land disposal scheme have still not been disposed of.
Inside Housing – News – Homes England fails to sell more than half of sites under public land scheme
A government programme designed to see surplus public land sold to provide new homes has fallen 100,000 houses short of its target, according to an official assessment. A summary report of the 2015-20 Public Land for Housing Programme set up by former chancellor George Osborne in the wake of David Cameron’s 2015 election victory, found that it had got just 38% of the way towards reaching its target of providing 161,000 plots from government departments.
Government land for homes programme falls 100,000 plots short of target | News | Housing Today
This weekend, there has been further media investigation.
Firstly, not enough promised social housing has been built – especially in rural areas:
In 2020, there were more than a quarter of a million people on a housing waiting list in rural areas but fewer than 4,500 social homes were built in 2019-20, according to the Country Land and Business Association. The shortfall identified by the cross-party Commons committee comes as Gove faces allegations of “negligence” from builders in abandoning local housebuilding targets in the face of Tory backbench rebellion this week.
David Renard, the housing spokesperson at the Local Government Association, said: “The social housing supply is not sufficient to meet the current housing demand, which is why we want to see long-term plans to give councils powers to build 100,000 high-quality, climate-friendly social homes a year.”
England’s affordable housing scheme falls 32,000 homes short of target | Housing | The Guardian
Secondly, programmes set up to build social housing have failed to deliver:
Running from 2011 until 2020, the Government’s Public Land for Housing programme aimed to support the building of 260,000 homes through the sell off of public assets, including empty land and disused hospitals, schools and military barracks. However, a report released by the Government in September showed the programme fell far short of this target: by the end of the scheme in March 2020 enough land had been sold for only 170,000 homes. The Government has been heavily criticised for its failure to ensure that a good proportion of homes built under the scheme were affordable.
“It would have been one of the easiest mechanisms we have to solve the housing crisis,” said Rebecca Winson, a senior organiser for the New Economics Foundation, who describes the scheme as a “massive missed opportunity”. “This was land which was either in the control of local councils or various bits of the Government. Therefore all of those councils or the NHS or the police or whoever it was, this could and should have been an opportunity for them to use that land for public good, rather than short-term profit.”
Government sold off public land for more than 200 housing developments with no affordable homes
A FAILURE OF DISTRICT COUNCIL PROMISES ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING
The current debate on the draft East Devon Local Plan focusses on housing – and whether it can deliver on social or affordable housing:
In East Devon, we have a combination of high house prices, high private rents and a low proportion of social and affordable rent properties across the district. There is currently a waiting list of almost 4000 (check stat) on Devon Home Choice. This environment is the backdrop for a number of challenges that EDDC face, but it also underlines the value of the service we can offer.
Housing Strategy DRAFT appendix 1.pdf
The East Devon Local Plan promotes the delivery of new affordable housing in the district, through policies relating to affordable housing targets (Strategy 34) and exceptions sites (Strategy 35).
Affordable Housing – East Devon
To take a very controversial example, the Knowle site was of course public land sold off for housing – and yet that particular scheme was not able to make affordable housing as a priority, despite proclamations made at the time:
The senior planning officer stated in a letter to the developer at the time that “the scheme constitutes a C3 use and the level of affordable housing sought will come as a disappointment but we can assure you that these issues have undergone a very detailed consideration by Officers with appropriate independent legal opinion… Concerning the issue of affordable housing, the policy of the Local Plan sets out a target of 50% affordable housing for residential development in Sidmouth. The presumption is that such affordable housing should be provided on site. As a result we will be seeking on-site provision of affordable housing in this case.”
EAST DEVON DISTRICT COUNCIL’S “RELOCATION PROJECT” – STATEMENT OF OBJECTION – 16 July 2018
The current developers at Knowle talk of ‘policy-compliant affordable housing’ – but that provision has been reduced and ghettoised:
The updated proposals for the site’s redevelopment look to provide a purpose-built care home, Extra Care and age-restricted Retirement Living accommodation as well as policy compliant affordable housing.
· The number of affordable apartments has been reduced from 21 to 17. This has also enabled the affordable apartment block to be relocated from the northeast part of the Plateau to the north-west, that is stepped away from neighbouring properties
Fresh plans to transform The Knowle into a retirement village – Devon Live
And so we have a gap between what the planning authority wants and what the developer delivers:
“Local planning authorities specify a percentage of affordable housing that developers have to provide. But these policies are not all-powerful”
“In essence, financial viability assessments provide a loophole for developers to escape their affordable housing obligations.”
How private developers get out of building affordable housing | New Economics Foundation
The VGS has now put a dedicated page together to look at these plans:
“We are now in a position where the site has been sold on and another company are trying to create some sort of older persons’ enclave.”
The Knowle in 2022 – Vision Group for Sidmouth
Knowle: new developer, new plans: new analysis – Vision Group for Sidmouth
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