Housing and Strategic Planning Cabinet Member – Minutes – 3 March 2009

30 (15) AFFORDABLE HOUSING FINANCIAL VIABILITY ASSESSMENT – The Head of Strategic Regeneration, Housing and Development submitted a report to inform the Cabinet Member of the outcomes of the recently completed Affordable Housing Financial Viability Assessment and to highlight the impact of the findings for the evidence base in support of the affordable housing policies of the Local Development Framework Core Strategy.

The North Lincolnshire Local Plan (May 2003) was to be superseded by the North Lincolnshire Local Development Framework (LDF). This together with the Regional Spatial Strategy for Yorkshire and the Humber would be the development plan for North Lincolnshire and would form the basis for all planning decisions. It would be made up of a number of Development Plan Documents (DPDs) and Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs). Through this process the planning policies were being reviewed.

The current policy for affordable housing provision in North Lincolnshire was based upon Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing (PPS3) and the Regional Spatial Strategy. This set out that on all sites of 15 or more dwellings up to 30% affordable housing should be sought.

The Strategic Housing Market Assessment concluded that in order to meet existing and newly arising housing need 373 new affordable homes per year would need to be made available for the next five years. Securing affordable housing through the planning system is one such method of providing new affordable homes.

In September 2008 the Strategic Housing team jointly with the Spatial Planning team commissioned Adams Integra to carry out an Affordable Housing Financial Viability Assessment to test whether it was financially viable for a developer to provide affordable housing as part of a development site at the thresholds and target percentages proposed in the draft housing policies of the Local Development Framework Core Strategy Preferred Options Document.

The key findings of the assessment were summarised in the report. The full document along with the executive summary would be published on the council’s website and used as part of the evidence base for the Local Development Framework Core Strategy.

Resolved – (a) That the findings of the report be noted, and (b) that the use of the findings in preparing the affordable housing policies within the Local Development Framework Core Strategy be endorsed