St Edmundsbury Core Strategy (December 2010)

Policy CS5 - Affordable HousingIssues and Trends4.62 One of the top priorities of the Borough Council is the availability ofaffordable housing. The borough has some of the highest house prices in Suffolkand, despite fluctuations in prices and economic conditions, homes are still difficultto purchase for many, given the lower than county average incomes across theborough.4.63 There are currently in the region of 5,200 households on the housingregister (June 2009), of which approximately 50% are single person households,40% families and 10% older people. There is an increased need for supportedhousing, particularly for older people, however, the current direction of nationalpolicy does not encourage sheltered housing schemes and has a preference forsupporting older people in their own homes.4.64 At the end of 2008: The average sale price of market housing in St Edmundsbury was £218,000; The average household income was £450 a week (£23,400 a year); The house purchase affordability ratio was eight times average earnings; and The necessary household income to afford the cheapest market property wasin the region of £52,0004.65 The term “affordable housing” is used to encompass intermediate and social(or affordable) rented housing, irrespective of tenure or ownership (whetherexclusive or shared) or financial arrangements, that will be available to peoplewho cannot afford to rent or buy houses available on the open market.4.66 For affordable housing to be viable to those in housing need it must meetthe following tests:be only for households lacking their own housing or living in housing which isinadequate or unsuitable, who are unlikely to be able to meet their needs inthe housing market without some help; andsuch housing should be available, both initially and for subsequentoccupancy, only to those with a demonstrable housing need.4.67 Planning policies have been in place for nearly ten years to assist withdelivering affordable housing through the planning process, but in 2006/7 only22.6% of all new homes completed in the borough were classed as affordable.This is considerably below the needs identified in our Housing Requirements Studycommissioned in 2005. The study concluded that 40% of all housing providedshould be affordable and that we should seek to secure affordable housing on asmany sites as possible in order to maximise affordable housing delivery across theborough.4.68 Government planning policy on affordable homes is contained withinPlanning Policy Statement 3: Housing published in 2006. It requires LocalDevelopment Frameworks to:i. Set an overall target for the amount of affordable housing to be provided;ii. Set separate targets for social-rented and intermediate affordable housingwhere appropriate;48