2. Affordable Housing Proposal Form
What is it?
Policy HOU5 of the Plan Strategy requires residential sites of a certain size or number of units to provide a minimum of 20 per cent of the units as affordable housing. Affordable housing includes social rented housing; intermediate housing for sale; and intermediate housing for rent.
An Affordable Housing Proposal Form provides information on how Policy HOU5 is addressed by the application.
When is it required?
An Affordable Housing Proposal Form should be provided with applications for sites greater than 0.1 hectares and/or containing 5 or more residential units. It is required for proposals for general housing including dwelling houses, apartments and maisonettes, mixed-use developments, conversions, sub-divisions and changes of use.
For the avoidance of doubt, an Affordable Housing Proposal Form is not required for specialist housing including Purpose Built Managed Student Accommodation and residential institutions such as care homes, nursing homes and supported housing schemes.
What should be included?
Applicants should complete and submit the Affordable Housing Proposal Form at 'Appendix 1' of the Affordable Housing and Housing Mix Supplementary Planning Guidance.
A copy of the Affordable Housing Form can be obtained by emailing [email protected].
Where Policy HOU5 of the Plan Strategy applies, and less than 20 per cent affordable housing is proposed, a written statement should be provided that sets out why the minimum level of affordable housing is not proposed. For example, this could be based on grounds of either a) sustainability; and/or b) viability. Where the justification is on viability grounds, a Viability Assessment should be provided (see section 49).
Guidance
Further guidance is provided by the Council’s Affordable Housing and Housing Mix Supplementary Planning Guidance.
