FI14736
Request
Could you please provide an up to date list of all current housing developments, noting the number of houses being built and what percentage are social housing ? Additionally I would like detailed reasons why said developers do not need to provide social housing.
Response
We are unable to provide data for 2024 as this is not currently available (Housing surveys are currently being undertaken for the April 2023 – March 24 monitoring period). For a list of all current housing developments as of 31 March 2023, please see the Authority Monitoring Report (AMR) 2022/23, Appendix B for the Extant (either under construction or not yet started) permissions Monitoring (dover.gov.uk)
Chapter 3 of the AMR - Affordable Housing - explains the current affordable housing criteria applied to new developments and sets out that when they reach a scale that requires Affordable Housing to be provided as part of their scheme, which under the current adopted policy (Policy DM 5 in Core Strategy 2010) is that Major sites of 15+ dwellings only are required to provide 30% of those as affordable homes. This policy is being replaced through the emerging Local Plan which will require smaller schemes in the district to provide 30% Affordable Housing in the future. (see Policy SP5 in emerging Local Plan). Therefore, no smaller scale developments under 10 units have been included within this response. There are some circumstances where instead of on-site requirements, financial contributions may be agreed to be paid to the Councils housing department to deliver affordable homes, in lieu of the on-site provision.
Based on the explanation above in relation to the scale and types of sites the Affordable Housing policy applies to, the table attacged contains a list of Major extant permissions which meet the criteria for providing Affordable Housing. This sets of how many housing units overall have been granted and how many of those units are ‘affordable’ under the definition. If there is no requirement for affordable units as part of the planning consent, or a financial payment provided to the Councils housing dept in lieu of providing the units on-site, this is explained in the end column of the table below. All relevant Officer/Planning Committee reports and viability reports/assessments related to specific planning applications referenced can be found using the online planning portal using the planning application number.
For additional information - Table 15 in the AMR (link above) sets out the number of Affordable Housing unit completions in the District since 2006.
Attachment