Agenda item

The Case Officer (Service Delivery) presented the report on affordable housing in South Somerset.  With the aid of a powerpoint presentation, members were informed about the following:

·      Housing Need and how it’s established within the District.

·      The role of Homefinder Somerset.

·      725 homes were needed in South Somerset of which 206 would be for affordable housing as outlined in the Local Plan.

·      There were currently 2016 people registered on Homefinder Somerset looking for affordable accommodation in South Somerset.  Around 900 of those people were looking for affordable accommodation in Area South.

·      The Countywide Somerset Housing Strategy was adopted in March 2019 and was the overarching strategy that looked at affordable housing. The Homelessness and Rough Sleeper Strategy sits underneath the Housing Strategy.  The Initial plan that was submitted with the Housing Strategy when it was adopted at District Executive  links in with the priorities of the SSDC Council Plan .

·      The Rural Lettings Framework applied to help ensure that vacancies in rural areas are advertised with a local connection criteria to applicants who live in the parish or within the adjoining parish.

·      The service supported Community Land Trust’s (CLT’s) and also worked closely with Wessex Community Assets.

·      Worked with four registered providers to provide much needed housing.

·      There was grant funding still available for housing need surveys, planning feasibility studies, a revolving land fund and small grants for Community Land trusts.

·      Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) was discussed, Yarlington delivering a small development in Long Sutton with some Passive Haus and Stonewater will be delivering 4 x 2 bed Beattie Passive system dwellings. A video created by Magna Housing was also shown as they are working with Rollalong based in Dorset to provide modular dwellings as a form of MMC

·      The development programme for 2020/21 including a provision of 275 which had exceeded the target figure of 206. The current year’s figure of 232 consisting of: 

·      Social Rent - 81    

     Affordable Rent – 46

     Affordable Rent to Buy - 87          

     Shared Ownership/ Intermediate – 47

·      Myths regarding the need and allocation of affordable housing was also discussed.

In response to questions, the Case Officer (Service Delivery) responded to points of detail, some of her comments included:

·         An explanation of the Local Plan Policies and the trigger points for these policies i.e policy HG3 is triggered if there is 10 or more dwellings proposed onsite.  We would then require 35% of the site ti be provided as affordable housing split 80% for social rent and the remaining 20% to be intermediate housing such as shared ownership

·         Explained the Homefinder Somerset figure of 900 for expressed need was for individual applications and not per household.

·         Working with registered providers to look at MMC and explore opportunities.  This is not necessarily the cheaper option, however Magna were trying to stay local partnering with Rollalong who are based in Dorset.

·         Explained the ongoing and annual application process for Homefinder Somerset.

At the conclusion of the item, the Chairman thanked the officers for attending the meeting.