Spaxton Parish Housing Need Assessment NOVEMBER 2017 1 Spaxton Parish Housing Need Assessment November 2017 Draft Report NOVEMBER 2017 Final Report NOVEMBER 2017 Contacts Duncan Harvey Direct: 01278 436440 Email: [email protected] Esther Carter Direct: 01278 435599 Email: [email protected] Organisation Sedgemoor District Council Address Affordable Housing Development Unit, Housing, Health & Wellbeing, Bridgwater House, King Square, Bridgwater, Somerset, TA6 3AR Telephone 0300 303 7800 Email [email protected] REPORT STRUCTURE PAGE PART 1 - CONTEXT & METHODOLOGY Context 3 Methodology 3/4 Spaxton Housing Picture 4/5 Local Income Levels & Affordability 5/6 PART 2 – HOUSING NEED SURVEY ANALYSIS Current Housing Circumstances 7 Future Housing Requirements & Financial Information 7/8 PART 3 – SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATION Pre-Existing Evidence from Homefinder Somerset (Housing Register) 9 Housing Need Survey Analysis 9 Combined Affordable Housing Requirement 9 Detailed Information from Survey 10 PART 3 – AFFORDABLE HOUSING INFORMATION Affordable Housing Information 10/11 Housing Tenure Types 11/12 Addressing Future Affordable Housing Need in Spaxton 12/13 Further Information 14 2 Part 1 – Context & Methodology CONTEXT The Housing Need Assessment (“HNA”) seeks to investigate the parish’s opinion of future housing development and housing need for the village of Spaxton. Sedgemoor District Council Affordable Housing Development Team (AFHDT) has a programme to carry out Housing Need Assessments (HNA) in Parishes that fall into the new Tier 3 and Tier 4 categories in the proposed draft Local Plan. Parishes that fall into the new Tier 3 and Tier 4 will be part of the 2016/18 programme. The HNA will provide essential information to ascertain what, if any, housing need exists in these parishes. The SDC Affordable Housing Development Team (“AFHDT”) is a small-dedicated team with the specific responsibility to oversee the delivery of new affordable housing. The team are part of the wider SDC Housing, Health and Wellbeing Service. Building on successful records of accomplishment of delivering affordable homes in rural communities, the AFDHT provides support and advice to parish councils, landowners, developers and registered providers with the aim of developing new affordable housing. The AFHDT has developed its own housing need assessment process, which provide publically available independent and robust evidence for future housing growth in rural communities. The Community Council for Somerset Rural Housing Enablers carried out a HNA for Spaxton in September 2009. This HNA and the subsequent community drop in sessions provided the information to support the successful development of the six affordable homes by South Western Housing Society on their High Street development. The Council’s Housing Affordable Housing Development Team (“AFHDT”) attended the Spaxton Parish Council in June 2017, to provide a question and answer session on affordable housing. The members of Spaxton Parish Council asked Sedgemoor District Council to undertake a new HNA in the parish. The conclusions of this exercise will be formally presented to Spaxton Parish Council in late 2017 and subsequently will be made public on the Sedgemoor District Council website. Housing need is this context is defined as follows: . For the purposes of this document “‘housing need” can be defined as the need for an individual or household to obtain housing which is suitable to their circumstances; . It implies that there are problems or limitations with the household’s current housing arrangements and that the household is unable to afford or to access suitable accommodation in the private sector; . Such problems may be due to housing costs, size, location, layout, state of repair or security of tenure; . This need may be immediate or anticipated in the near future. Historically, the majority of responses in any survey of this kind come from: . People who feel themselves to be in need of housing now or in the near future; . Their relatives; . People involved in some way in community affairs who probably have an appreciation of the problems affecting the community as a whole, even if they are not in housing need; . People who feel strongly that there should be no more development in the village. METHODOLOGY – ASSESSMENT APPROACH Spaxton Parish Council working with SDC have modified the standard HNA form to incorporate questions to inform their Parish Plan. The HNA was split into two sections the Section 1, to determine opinions on future housing development in Spaxton. Section 2 is to determine what if any housing need exists in Spaxton. A covering letter was enclosed with the four-page HNA survey. There was also a pre-paid envelope enclosed to return completed forms. 3 The HNA is divided into the following sections: Section 1: Understanding your household and your opinions on future housing development Q 1 – 5: Understanding your household and your current housing circumstances Q 6 – 11: Your thoughts on future housing development in Spaxton Section 2: Understanding your household’s future housing needs There were four hundred and sixty-two (462) surveys sent. To date one hundred and fifty-seven (157) replies have been returned, of those returned six (6) completed Section 2 of the survey confirming they have some sort of housing need. A further five respondents are in private rented accommodation but did not fill out Section 2 of the survey. Seven (7) respondents are in Council accommodation; of which five (5) are currently, under-occupying and two (2) are adequately housed. One (1) of the replies state they have four children that have moved out of Spaxton because there are no suitable affordable homes to rent or buy and would like to move back. A further one (1) respondent is in a home, which is tied to employment but did not fill out Section 2 of the survey form, we would however usually investigate this person further as usually it transpires they would have some sort of housing need. A HNA was also sent to an additional eleven (11) households registered for affordable housing (in Spaxton) on Homefinder Somerset CBL system (formerly known as the housing waiting list) who requested Spaxton as their preferred place to live. We are unable to determine how many Homefinder Somerset applicants have completed the survey form due to the limited information returned on the HNA forms. The personal data provided from survey responses have been incorporated to assess each respondent’s personal need/requirement. Experience shows that local people are often apathetic to register for affordable housing and fill out a survey form prior to any housing development project. This is mainly because they feel that there is no prospect of an affordable home in the locality. The numbers on the housing register spike at key stages of new affordable housing build projects. The most notable of these triggers tend to be firstly when planning permission is secured, secondly when construction activity can be seen on site and thirdly, when the new homes are nearing completion. When assessing a respondent’s suitability to home ownership or private renting on the open market the following criteria is used. Home Ownership - purchase price based on multiplier of 3.5 time’s gross annual income plus available deposit (minimum of 15% of purchase price). Private rented – private renting affordability is calculated by multiplying monthly rent x 30, the total should be approximately the annual salary. This only looks at rent it doesn’t include any bills. Respondents who are unable access the open market (buy or rent) are assessed against eligibility for affordable rented or intermediate home ownership product. The respondent’s income, savings and size of family are key factors for assessing their need for affordable housing. The assessment of affordability looks at household incomes and savings, which are then measured against property prices, which suit the size and type, whether rented, or home ownership. Depending on tenure, additional factors are checked that will affect the cost of acquiring the property For home ownership, these costs include mortgage interest rates, mortgage indemnity premium. Mortgage application fee, legal fees, stamp duty tax, legal fees and search fees etc. For rent, these costs may include: rent deposit and rent paid in advance. SPAXTON HOUSING PICTURE Data from the Office for National Statistics 2011 have been accessed down to ward and parish level via and other web based data sources for information. Spaxton is a small village on the Quantocks in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset. 4 Spaxton (the village) is considered a rural settlement. In the affordable housing arena, settlements with a population of less than 3000 are classed as villages. In Planning terms, Spaxton is viewed as one of Sedgemoor’s Other Sustainable Settlements under the current Local Plan. As at 2011, there were 425 households and a population of 1,012 in Spaxton (Office of National Statistics, Census 2011) Owner Occupation is the dominant tenure across the parish accounting for 78% of all homes (331 households). This is higher than the Sedgemoor district average of 71.3% (Office of National Statistics, Census 2011) Private Rented accounts for 12% Spaxton has a small private rented housing supply, which is below the Sedgemoor district average of 14.5% (Office of National Statistics, Census 2011) Affordable Housing accounted for just 8% of the total housing stock, there are just 35 homes. 32 of these homes are rented, with 3 being affordable home ownership from either the Council or a housing association. The impact of the Right-to-Buy has seen the numbers of affordable homes drop since the early 1980’s (Office of National Statistics, Census 2011) None of the existing affordable homes carry a local allocation plan offering local people priority for vacancies. When considering the provision of future affordable housing for Spaxton, consideration has been given to parcels of land where TCPA planning approval for housing has been granted.