Rural Housing Update

April 2016 and uncertainty remains the key driver in rural affordable housing delivery.  What can Berkshire's rural communities expect in terms of truly affordable homes for local people in a changing landscape?

Late last week I had a call from a Parish Council Chair distraught that a developer that should be delivering some much needed affordable homes as part of the Section 106 conditions on a new development has now applied to change the affordable rented properties to Shared Ownership as the requirement for rented properties will no longer make the scheme viable to deliver.  I had no answer or remedy to offer this group.

The Homes and Communities Agency, the Government quango that manages the subsidies for affordable housing, announced late last year that there is no longer any subsidy in the current programme for rented tenures.  At about the same time the Government announced that Housing Associations will have to decrease their rents by 1%.  That all stacks up to money or incentive to develop new affordable rented properties

Put quite simply, that means we are unlikely to see much affordable rented accommodation developed for some time.  But if you can afford it, now is a great time to invest in your kids 'starter home'.

What is affordable housing? 

This is possibly the most important question to ask at the moment. Anyone remember when it was called 'social housing', then it became 'affordable housing' around the time that Local Authorities were encouraged to sell off their housing stock to Housing Associations.   The big difference was that the definition was broadened from just subsidised rented accommodation from either a Council or a Registered Provider to also include certain intermediate home ownership tenures, like Shared ownership properties.  More recently 'affordable rents' were introduced as an affordable tenure, rented units at 80% or less of open market rents.  It starts to get muddy.

What is now proposed is that the definition be broadened once again to include the new 'Starter Homes' product , which quite simply is just homes for sale to first time buyers with a 20% discount on the open market price (provided they are below a price cap of £250,000 outside Greater London). There are other regulations that will be attached, but it is proposed that as part of S106 conditions, Local Authorities will be required to deliver 20% of all housing on any new developments over 10 units, as so-called Starter Homes, this will leave very little room for any other affordable housing tenure.

To my mind we should eliminate the confusion caused by calling any homes 'affordable housing' and just call them 'discounted housing' 

Housing & Planning Bill

Having passed through the House of Commons relatively unscathed, the Housing and Planning Bill has been in Report stage in the House of Lords since the beginning of the year.  Many amendments have been proposed and debated, but we have yet to see what the final amendments will look like.

It is still hoped that the Bill will be enacted before the summer recess but I wouldn't want to place a bet on it.

There has been a massive rural voice demanding security of perpetuity on Rural Exception Sites, and it is anticipated that via the clever use of covenants any future threat of 'right to buy 'on exception sites can be avoided.  However the introduction of Starter Homes as a tenure presents its own threat.  All hope is not lost, there may still be a chance that rural exception sites will be exempted from the duty to provide Starter Homes.  Which is jolly good given that they certainly do not provide an affordable tenure in perpetuity and are unlikely to be considered affordable to very many people.

Local Plan Policies

Delivery of rural exception sites have been severely curtailed (in Berkshire have ground to a halt) due to uncertainty regarding: funding, housing site allocations, housing delivery numbers in the Strategic Housing Market Assessment, lack of up to date Local Policies in some Unitaries...

Rural communities are rightfully concerned about the types of development that might come their way. However, now more than ever they should be proactive about providing opportunities for affordable homes for local people.  Rural exception sites are still an option, although now you will have to have an element of open market housing to cross-subsidise the affordable housing.  Get your local landowners on board and start negotiating how you can meet local needs locally!

Rural Housing Enabling in Berkshire

Lastly, the funding for the Rural Housing Enabling Project in Berkshire has been severely cut this year, like everything else.  This most likely means that Rural Housing Need Surveys are no longer available without charge. These surveys provide your community with vital evidence to show just what the affordable housing need in your community is. 

Apart from Housing Need Surveys, the Rural Housing Enabler (Arlene Kerlsey) is able to help your community identify land and negotiate with land owners and developers to make sure your community gets the right kind of development to meet local needs.  There may now be charges for these sevices but they won’t be astronomical. 

I am also a Locality Neighbourhood Planning Champion and can offer you advice and signpost your questions on Neighbourhood Planning. Keep an eye out, I plan to run some training events soon.

I may be down, but I'm not out - call me if you would like to discuss any of the above, 0118 9612000 or email: arlene.kersley@ccberks.org.uk