Aylesbury Vale Area Affordable Housing Supplementary Planning Document
1. Overview
1. This document provides planning guidance on how affordable housing policy should be applied to proposals for residential development within the Aylesbury Vale local plan area, for ease referred to as the Aylesbury Vale area throughout this document. The guidance expands upon that already provided in the policies in the Adopted Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan 2021 (VALP) .VALP is the starting point and where relevant, made neighbourhood plans and the latest National Planning Policy Framework are material considerations.
2. This Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) sits alongside other documents, including:
- VALP (in particular, Policies H1, H2, H6a, H6c, BE2)
- Made neighbourhood plans in the Aylesbury Vale area
- Buckinghamshire Housing and Economic Development Needs Assessment (HEDNA) Update 2016 and Addendum 2017
- VALP Viability Assessment Final Report August 2017
- Aylesbury Vale Design SPD (once adopted)
- The Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2019-2022
- Aylesbury Garden Town Framework and Infrastructure SPD (once adopted)
3. The Issues and Summaries below summarises the key elements and the detail that is included in this document.
Issues and Summaries
Issue - What is affordable housing?
Summary - This SPD uses the definition of Affordable Housing set out in the VALP at para 5.1.
Issue - Which developments should provide affordable housing?
Summary - Developments (including allocated sites in VALP) of 11 or more dwellings gross or sites of 0.3ha or larger. (VALP Policy H1).
Issue - How much affordable housing will be sought?
Summary - A minimum of 25% of the total number of units. The council requires at least 25% unless viability evidence proves otherwise.
Issue - Factors that might reduce the amount of affordable housing being sought
Summary - (i) Permitted development conversions (ii) Unviable sites (Policy H1 (b) with development proposals supported by an independently assessed open book financial appraisal of the proposed development)
Issue - What tenure mix is being sought?
Summary - The most up-to-date evidence supports a tenure split of 80% affordable or social rent and 20% intermediate housing.
Issue - Phasing of the affordable housing provision
Summary - Delivery will be specified by a trigger mechanism in the Section 106. Where scheme viability is an issue, this can be assessed further and reviewed during the lifetime of the development.
Issue - Design – layout
Summary - The affordable housing should be:
- Fully integrated with the rest of the development
- Not visually distinguishable
- The equivalent quality to the market housing on the site
- Distributed appropriately limited in cluster size (see paras 54-55)
Issue - Where should the affordable housing provision be located?
Summary - Affordable housing should be provided on site. Off-site provision or financial contributions may be considered by the council in exceptional circumstances (see paras 59-64 of this SPD) and in those instances, it should contribute to the objective of creating mixed and balanced communities. An on-line calculator will be available on the website to provide details of this provision and what it equates to in terms of a financial payment.
Issue - Design of the affordable housing
Summary - Will need to comply with the VALP Policy BE2, Aylesbury Vale Design SPD and Accessibility Standards in VALP Policy H6c.
Issue - What dwelling size mix is being sought?
Summary - Affordable housing will be agreed with the council, taking account of the council's most up-to-date evidence on housing need and any available evidence regarding local market conditions. This is outlined in Policy H6a.
Issue - Housing for older people
Summary - Affordable Housing requirements apply to houses and flats within Class C3 of the Use Classes Order, and serviced flats and other accommodation (what-ever use class), which may provide communal facilities, but which provide all the facilities of a single dwelling in self-contained units. The VALP Table 14 explains types of C3 and C2 accommodation and the factors that determine the appropriate use class.
Issue - Rural exception sites
Summary - The council may exceptionally permit the development of Affordable Housing to meet a locally identified need in rural areas that would not normally be acceptable, by making an exception to adopted policy, subject to material considerations. This is outlined in VALP Policy H2 Rural exception sites along with the criteria.
