Appendix A KERRIER DISTRICT COUNCIL REPORT FOR: QUALITY LIVING ENVIRONMENT OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE – 10 January 2007 REPORT OF: JOINTLY: PRINCIPAL PLANNING OFFICER AND HEAD OF SERVICE – HOUSING - PART I 1 REVISION OF THE COUNCIL’S AFFORDABLE HOUSING POLICY. 1.1 SUMMARY This report is to update Members on the review of the Councils Affordable Housing Policy, including the results of the Affordable Housing Consultation Public Opinion Survey undertaken in August 2006 and the comments received from the formal stakeholder consultation undertaken in October 2006. The adoption of the recommendations arising from this process will amend the operational level policy for affordable housing and dictate the content of planning obligations sought to secure affordable housing. 1.2 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS FOR THE COUNCIL There are no financial implications for the council arising directly from this report. Contained within current Portfolio Plan? No 1.3 OTHER IMPLICATIONS Legal: The implementation of the Policy through planning obligations. Failure to have sufficient regard to consultation responses will expose the Council to challenge Corporate Property: Council owned land may be considered to deliver some affordable housing schemes. Personnel/Trade Union: None. Overview and Scrutiny: Quality Living Environment. Sustainability: To provide sustainable, affordable homes. Community Safety: The schemes will be developed with regard to Community Safety, seeking advice from the Police Architectural Liaison Officer. Social Deprivation: To provide affordable homes. Local Strategic Partnership: To meet the LSP objective of increasing the supply of affordable and decent homes. Comprehensive Performance Assessment: To provide a balanced housing market. Communication/Public Relations: Parish and Town Councils will be consulted as schemes progress. Consultation has taken place with residents and stakeholders involved in the delivery of affordable housing. 79 E-Government: Using the West Cornwall Affordable Housing Marketplace to advertise new schemes explaining how residents can apply and the prices residents can expect to pay for an affordable dwelling. 1.3 REPORT We are not dealing with the Local Plan or LDF policies but rather the operational policy required to give effect to these higher level policies. In April 2005 Full Council adopted the current pricing structure within the affordable housing policy. The current policy states affordable homes delivered by private developers must be sold for no more than three times the average Cornish wage plus five percent. Using the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2005, this sales figure currently equates to £64,173. Since the adoption of this policy the Council’s Members and Officers have received numerous representations from developers, lenders and prospective purchasers to the effect that the policy will prevent the delivery of affordable housing rather than enable it. There are also restricted rent levels. At the same Full Council meeting Members requested that the Quality Living Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee review the affordable housing policy and report their findings and recommendations back to Council. Following consideration of the entire policy the Panel determined that it was only the pricing structure that required immediate review, the other elements of the Policy being satisfactory. The Quality Living Environment Affordable Housing Review Panel visited a number of Local Authorities with similar housing affordability issues as Kerrier in order to review the success of their pricing structures and the delivery of affordable housing. In April 2006 the Quality Living Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee (QLE) reported their findings back to Full Council. QLE recommended that the Council should formally consult both residents and stakeholders on a pricing structure based on the model adopted by Carrick District Council. Kerrier has consulted residents and stakeholders on the pricing structure: detailed in Appendix E. Consultation Exercise A thorough consultation exercise has been undertaken, which has included the following elements: 1. Face to face consultation with the public. This was undertaken on the Council’s behalf by PFA research and consisted of 428 interviews in three principle towns of Helston, Redruth and Camborne, with supplementary interviews conducted in Constantine, Lizard and Mullion, contributions from which were identified as lacking in the analysis of postcodes of interviewees in the three principle towns. The executive summary of this consultation is found in appendix D. 2. Consultation with Lenders. 60 lenders were sent the proposed guidance and the responses received can be found in Appendix B and any proposed amendments arising from these responses in Appendix A. 3. Consultation with Stakeholders, including developers, housebuilders, planning agents, GOSW and housing associations. 160 stakeholders were sent the proposed guidance and the responses received can be found in Appendix B and any proposed amendments arising from these responses in Appendix A. Members must have regard to the possibility that further investigation and consultation may be required. Members must also be clear that Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing (November 2006) has now been published and this will necessarily mean a further review of our higher level policies and those at an operational level. Further details on this will be given verbally at the meeting. This current proposal is therefore very much an interim measure. 80 1.4 FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY There are no financial issues for the Council arising directly from this report although the delivery of additional affordable housing will affect our ability to offer affordable housing options to those in housing need which could avoid the use of Bed and Breakfast, which has financial implications for the Council. 1.5 RISK ASSESSMENT The risk to the Council of having an affordable housing policy (at an operational level) which does not deliver affordable housing in Kerrier is that we may lose the opportunity to address housing need. A policy has to be economically viable for developers to progress development in Kerrier. The risk of having no restrictions in this area is that affordable housing development may actually be unaffordable to most people living in Kerrier. Risk Register Reference S4 Overall Risk Register Rating 12 Note: 1-8 Low/Moderate (Green) 9-15 High Risk (Amber) 16-25 Extreme (Red) Problems and Item Implications Mitigation Status Warnings 1 Failure to gain Failure to deliver Housing Enabling Amber planning permission officer works closely on individual schemes with RSLs and Planning to ensure proposed schemes are acceptable. 1.6 CONCLUSION The consultation exercise has shown that the document is generally sound and most responses have been positive. It is clear however that whilst this is accepted as an improvement on the previous policy position on the delivery of affordable housing, there should be an annual review of the policy (and any associated guidance) through the Annual Monitoring Report. 1.7 RECOMMENDATION That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee recommend to Council that the pricing structure in the operational affordable housing policy should be amended in line with the consultation and consultation responses and more particularly, the recommendations set out in Appendix A be adopted. Nicola Stinson, Principal Planning Officer Jane Barlow, Head of Service – Housing Background Papers. Appendix A – Consideration of Representation to Consultation Appendix B – Full representations Appendix C – List of Stakeholders Appendix D – Executive Summary of Affordable Housing Consultation Public Opinion Survey, August 2006. Appendix E – Consultation detail. (updated with 2006 figures). 81.