There is a high level of need for affordable housing in the South Hams district with over 1,500 households on the Councils Housing Register. A Housing Market and Needs Assessment was carried out in 2006 by David Couttie Associates and concluded that there was a net annual shortfall of 606 units of affordable housing. The Council also funds Parish Housing Needs Surveys, these surveys allow us to gather up-to-date information at a very local level to inform decisions about affordable housing. Parishes in the District that have had Housing Needs Surveys undertaken are:
| Blackawton |
Kingston |
South Brent |
| Buckfastleigh West |
Loddiswell |
South Pool |
| Chivelstone |
Malborough |
Staverton |
| Dartington |
Newton & Noss |
Stoke Fleming |
| Diptford |
North Huish |
Stoke Gabriel |
| East Portlemouth |
Rattery |
Ugborough |
| Frogmore & Sherford |
Salcombe |
Yealmpton |
| Holne |
Slapton |
|
The Parish Housing Needs surveys are available for a fee from the Rural Housing Enablers at Community Council of Devon, County Hall, Topsham Road, Exeter, EX2 4QB. Tel: 01392 383443. www.devonrcc.org.uk
The Housing Market and Needs Assessment is available on our Local Development Framework - Evidence Base webpage.
In order to meet the scale of housing need identified, the Council will seek to provide high levels of affordable housing on private developments. The level of affordable housing sought is detailed below.
Current Requirements
The Council's adopted LDF Core Strategy sets a strategic affordable housing target of 50% from all sources. The Affordable Housing Development Plan Document,adopted September 2008and the Affordable Housing Supplementary Planning Document, adopted September 2008, require all new housing schemes for 2 or more dwellings, including those on a mixed use basis, to contribute towards meeting the affordable housing needs of the District. The targets for Allocated and Unallocated sites are as follows:
On Allocated sites, in order to address the scale of need, sites will be required to deliver as much affordable housing as is viable. The local targets across the District are:
- On the Plymouth fringes (sites adjoining the city boundary, as referred to in the Core Strategy at policy CS2 as the Plymouth Principal Urban Area) a target of 50% is set,
- At the Area Centres (Dartmouth, Ivybridge, Kingsbridge, and Totnes) and Local Centres (Chillington/Stokenham, Modbury, Salcombe and Yealmpton) and including sites allocated at their peripheries a target of 55%, and
- In the rural areas 60%.
On Unallocated sites, a slide scale will be used to calculate affordable housing provision or contribution as follows:
- Capacity for 2 to 5 dwellings 20% (off site)
- Capacity for 6 to 14 dwellings 35% (on site)
- Capacity for 15 or more dwellings 50% (on site)
Any part of the resulting requirement making up less than a whole unit of affordable housing shall be provided as a financial contribution, where this would not compromise the overall viability of the development.
Affordable Housing Contributions Calculator.xls
(23kb - requires Microsoft Excel, or the free viewer available below)
The target tenure split set out in the Affordable Housing-Development Plan Document is 50% social rented and 50% intermediate housing.
- The
Adopted Affordable Housing DPD (September 2008) contains the Council's approach for delivering affordable housing.
- The Adopted Affordable Housing SPD (September 2008) contains the Council's detailed approach for delivering affordable housing, building on the policy context of the Affordable Housing DPD.
For further information and an informal discussion please contact:
Documents in pdf format, as indicated by , require reader software to view them
(please note these files may be large and take considerable time to download).
To obtain free pdf reader software, click on the logo below. |
Viewing MS Excel spreadsheets
If you do not have MS Excel, you can download a free Excel Viewer from Microsoft.com.
