H/AH: Affordable housing

Countryside recognise the importance of the delivery of affordable housing, particular in areas such as Greater Cambridge which experience a high level of need. As preparation of the Local Plan continues further viability assessment will be required to ensure that the overall package of requirements across the Plan read as a whole is viable and deliverable.
Concern is however raised regarding the proposed restrictive approach to cluster sizes which are seemingly proposed through the requirement to accord with the guidance provided in the Greater Cambridge Housing Strategy Annexe 10: Clustering and Distribution of Affordable Housing (Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council, June 2021) or a successor document. The document referenced sets out maximum cluster numbers in relation to the total number of units proposed. For example, developments of 30 to 200 units must have maximum clusters of 15 units. Concern is raised on this point. It is considered that flexibility should be allowed for clusters to exceed the 15 unit restriction where this has been agreed with the relevant Registered Provider. The clustering of affordable housing units is generally a practical requirement for Registered Providers for management and maintenance reasons. As such, the policy should allow a degree of flexibility here.

The aim of this policy should be to respond to the demand for truly affordable housing that people want to
live in. The Cambridge Green Party believes we need a large increase in council owned and managed secure rented property backed up by community ownership cooperatives, housing associations and cohousing projects.
We would like to see an assessment of the success or otherwise of previous policies to address the shortage
of truly affordable housing.
We have previously engaged with the issue of Affordable Housing - see for our example our response to the new housing policies consultation earlier this year [1]. Our key points from that consultation remain salient:
we believe that a discount of 20% relative to the market rate is insufficient to make ‘Affordable Private Rent’
homes truly affordable for local people. We are very concerned that the Setting of Affordable Rents Policy
seems to demonstrate that, by the Council’s own metrics, ‘affordable’ housing will in fact be no such thing.
The justification given is that providing greater discounts would not be “viable” in terms of Registered Housing Providers’ business plans. We also think that 40% ‘affordable’ housing in developments is insufficient and call for a minimum of 50%.
It would be useful to have a definition of the term Affordable housing which encompasses both home-owning and rental.
[1]
https://southcambs.greenparty.org.uk/assets/images/local parties/southcambridgeshire/Green%20response
%20housing%20consultation%20March%202021.pdf