New guidance intended to help secure affordable housing in the Souths Downs

A new document will give developers ‘greater certainty and less wiggle room’ when it comes to providing affordable housing at developments within the South Downs.
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The supplementary document on affordable housing has been officially adopted by the South Downs National Park Authority following a unanimous decision by the planning committee.

The document gives detailed, technical guidance on how policies around affordable homes – which are laid out in the local plan – should be implemented.

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It is intended as a supplementary document to the local plan, which was adopted last summer, and will be used to help determine relevant planning applications.

At a meeting to discuss the document, Heather Baker, deputy chairman of the planning committee, said: “We need more affordable housing in the park for our young people and for families on low income and we can encourage this by making the advice clear and helpful to developers.

“I think this is what this document does and I’m delighted to see it come through.”

Ian Phillips, chairman of the South Downs National Park Authority, said the details outlining what financial contribution developers could pay in lieu of affordable housing – in exceptional circumstances where providing affordable homes was ‘genuinely not feasible’ – was a ‘very important step forward’ which would give both the authority and developers ‘much greater certainty and less wiggle room’.

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“I welcome this document and look forward to it informing future decisions,” he said.

Responding to the news, a spokesman from the Midhurst Society said: “We were disappointed that the local plan didn’t go far enough on several counts, and we duly registered our concerns.

“Affordable housing was one, and so we are pleased that this has now been rectified.

“The Supplementary Planning Document has come about as a result of SDNPA now fully recognising that private residential property has become unaffordable for families or individuals with modest incomes.”

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According to the local plan, any new development with three or more homes should include affordable housing.

For developments with 11 or more new homes, a minimum of 50 per cent of the total should be affordable.

Meanwhile new developments located outside of settlement boundaries should provide 100 per cent affordable housing.

Securing affordable housing at new developments is a priority because, according to the supplementary document, the average house sold within the national park costs some fourteen times the average salary – which means people struggle to meet the cost of accommodation, and younger people in particular are discouraged from remaining in the area.

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The Midhurst Society said it would continue to monitor and comment on planning applications in order to ensure the affordable housing policies are adhered to.

The society also supports the Midhurst Community Land Trust, which was set up in 2017 by local volunteer residents whose objective is similarly to provide affordable housing for local people.

Read more about {https://www.midhurstclt.org/|the community land trust here.)

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