Inventing our future Collective action for a sustainable economy

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5.54 Local Authorities: local authorities can supplement SRHP investment with capital funding of their
own. Although such funding will typically be aimed at their own local rather than strategic needs
e.g. funding for Key worker schemes accommodating their own employees, the effect is to reduce
the demands on the SRHP for subsidising the overall need for affordable housing. When
investing their own capital resources in new affordable housing, local authorities are
expected to follow the strategic objectives and priorities they have agreed in the
respective sub-regional strategy.
5.55 Other public bodies: capital subsidy from public programmes which are not housing specific can
sometimes be used where the provision of additional affordable housing also meets the objectives
of the respective programmes e.g. regeneration schemes.
5.56 Voluntary organisations: voluntary sector funding of affordable housing is a practicable
proposition where this fits the charitable purposes being pursued by the organisation in question.
This is most likely to apply where the needs being addressed require care and support
5.57 Private sector bodies: Arrangements should be created through which private sector
employers in areas of housing stress in the Region could ensure affordable housing for
their key employees through the provision of capital subsidy for their housing. This would
be attractive where other means of dealing with recruitment and retention problems are more
expensive. Revenue funding might be a further alternative in this area.
Figure 6. Policy Framework: section 106 agreements
Policy Framework: section 106 agreements
Affordable housing is typically one of a list of potential requirements under planning
obligations that need to be considered for any proposed development. These policies
require housing to be considered alongside transport improvements, health and
education facilities, conservation and any other competing use for planning gain,
not that housing should be given precedence over them. This puts a premium on local
policies and other arrangements being in place to direct and manage the process for
using section 106 agreements.
• planning authorities must establish policies and/or other mechanisms for setting
targets for the volume or proportion of affordable housing on development sites to
be covered by s106 agreements. These should support the achievement of regional
targets set out in the East of England Plan. Planning authorities should also consider
securing contributions to agreed masterplans or area wide strategies where
appropriate.
• clearly, the use of planning gain for affordable housing must be balanced with
the competing needs for it to be used to fund other infrastructure and amenities.
However, the RHS requires that subsidy from the SRHP is provided for affordable
housing only where it is demonstrably needed to supplement a reasonable use of
planning gain.
• given the limited availability of other capital subsidy for affordable housing, local
authorities need to recognise that there is generally no guarantee of subsidy for the
affordable housing required other than what they can secure through a section 106
agreement. In considering the balance of uses for planning gain, it is therefore
advisable for local authorities to take as the starting point a need for all subsidy
for affordable housing to come from planning gain. If this position needs to be
modified as a consequence of their negotiations with developers, the prospect of
a shortfall of subsidy from this source then sets the parameters for seeking capital
subsidy from elsewhere to make up the gap.