The overarching policy objective to provide enough homes to meet objectively assessed local need, including housing that is affordable to buy, is strongly supported. This policy should however specifically reference the need to ‘significantly increase the number of affordable ownership homes for those who can’t afford to buy their own homes’.
The NPPG confirms (Paragraph: 020 Reference ID: 2a-020-20190220) that affordable housing need includes those that cannot afford their own homes, either to rent, or to own, where that is their aspiration. The British Social Attitudes Survey (2018) reports that c.87% of households aspire to own their own home. On this basis, nearly all households presently living in the Greater Cambridge private rented sector can be assumed to be in need of an affordable ownership home option. This conclusion is supported by the Council’s Housing Strategy (2019) evidence base which confirms demand for low-cost home ownership options outstrips supply (page 11).
However, the Council’s Housing Needs of Specific Groups (2021) evidence base report significantly understates the scale of this need by assuming only households who can’t afford a home costing £200,000 or more require affordable home ownership. Homes at this very low price point are unlikely to be of reasonable quality and/or in the right locations close enough to where people work (e.g Cambridge City Centre). The assessment also incorrectly assumes all those who can’t afford private rents would be unable to afford to access affordable home ownership products. This is not the case in many locations (including within Cambridge City Centre) where private rents (£1,000 PCM) can exceed mortgage payments on discounted market sale homes (£790 PCM).