Aylesbury Vale Area Affordable Housing Supplementary Planning Document

14. Appendices

VALP Policies H1 and H2

H1 Affordable housing

Residential developments of 11 or more dwellings gross or sites of 0.3ha or more will be required to provide a minimum of 25% affordable homes on site. In addition:

1. The type, size, tenure and location of 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.
2. Where an applicant advises that a proposal is unviable in the light of the above policy requirement, other policy requirements, specific site characteristics and other financial factors, an independently assessed* open book financial appraisal of the development should be provided by the applicant
3. Exceptionally affordable housing provision may be provided off-site, or a financial contribution made in lieu of such provision. This will need to be justified as an exception to normal policy as part of the planning application.
4. Where a site forms part of a larger site of a size which is capable of being developed, the affordable housing requirements will be applied on a cumulative basis.
5. The affordable homes will be expected to be integrated throughout the development site in accordance with the adopted Supplementary Planning Document.
6. Where the affordable housing policy would result in a requirement that more than half of an affordable home should be provided, the calculation will be rounded upwards and where it would be less than 0.5 a financial contribution of equivalent value may be sought.

Further details regarding the implementation of this policy will be provided in the Affordable Housing SPD.

*The independent consultant who will assess the financial appraisal will be chosen by the council.

H2 Rural Exception Sites

In rural areas, small‐scale developments for affordable housing may exceptionally be permitted, provided that the proposal meets the following criteria:

1. the number, mix, and design of dwellings is appropriate to meet local housing needs established through a housing need survey
2. it is located on a site within or adjoining the existing developed footprint of the settlement*
3. developments must be appropriate in scale, design and character to the locality, and
4. dwellings permitted in accordance with this policy will be reserved in perpetuity for those in affordable local need with a valid local connection by planning obligation or conditions

Cross-subsidy

Where an independently assessed open book viability assessment can demonstrate that 100% affordable housing cannot be delivered on an exception site, the council may agree to a proportion of some market homes within the site, if they meet the above criteria as well as the criteria below:

5. the viability assessment must show that the scale of the market housing component is essential for the delivery of the rural exception affordable housing scheme and that it is based on rural exception site land values and must not include any profit, and
6. the majority of the development must be for rural exception affordable housing.

*the existing developed footprint is defined as 'the continuous built form of the settlement, and excludes individual buildings and groups of dispersed buildings, agricultural buildings and associated land on the edge of the settlement and gardens, paddocks and other undeveloped land within the curtilage of buildings on the edge of the settlement where the land relates more to the surrounding countryside than to the built-up area of the settlement'.