Issue - meetings

To provide an annual update on the delivery of affordable housing.

Members received an annual update on delivery of affordable housing in the borough. During discussion, the following comments were made:

·         Registered providers were more interested in sites offering 100% affordable as it gave them greater freedoms in how and where plan delivery

·         There were different tenure types within the definition of affordable housing and registered providers tended to favour shared ownership

·         The possibility of reducing the requirement for affordable housing where local need had been met

·         Due to the need to statutory duties in relation to allocations, a local connection could not be applied to every settlement such as Hinckley and Burbage

·         The table in the report took account of completed schemes only and not where permission had been granted but development had not commenced

·         The authority was approximately 70% through the local plan period and had delivered 65% of the affordable housing needed but there was a lag from permission to build

·         A delivery programme had been developed to ensure a long term structured strategy of affordable housing delivery

·         The delay in development of the sustainable urban extensions had impacted delivery of affordable housing.

Councillor Ladkin entered the meeting at 6.40pm.

It was requested that a report be brought to the next meeting on the five year housing land supply including the sustainable urban extensions and progress on the local plan.

The chairman thanked officers for the report and the ongoing work to deliver affordable homes and asked that in future this annual report includes information on small rural sites where it was difficult to get RSLs on board and on how we can ensure we don’t overburden rural communities that have already taken a large share of affordable housing and have met local need.

Councillor Pendlebury left the meeting at 7:15pm.

RESOLVED –

(i)            The report be noted and officers thanked for their hard work;

(ii)           A report be brought to the next meeting on the five year land supply and progress on the local plan.