has told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that it will take a radical rethink of national housing policy if the gap between supply and demand is ever to be bridged.
Much of the recent rise in affordable delivery in Preston is down to the boom in the total number of homes that have been built in the city over the same period. That is because Central Lancashire planning policy attempts to secure a fixed proportion of affordable housing on all new-build developments – 30 percent of the overall number of properties on estates in urban areas and 35 percent in rural parts.
Social rent – available to those meeting certain income criteria and who can demonstrate a connection to a particular area – is lower than its affordable counterpart and is calculated according to a formula based on property values and local earnings. The government said in February this year that social rent would be made a priority within its £11.5bn Affordable Homes Programme for 2021-2026.
“That wasn’t the situation for my generation or my parents’ generation – so you have to go back a long way to [get to] a time when it was difficult for people who were in what they thought were okay jobs to be able to save enough money to get on the housing ladder in an area like Preston, which is not the most expensive in the country.
That means that developers can make a case for not having to adhere to the requirements as part of their planning applications, if doing so would push their profit margins below the 15-20 percent level that national planning policy deems that they should be able to expect to make. It also recommends using that policy to “maximise delivery” delivery of affordable dwellings – especially homes for social rent.
In a report published in 2020, the Affordable Housing Commission found that a household earning the National Living Wage and living in social housing was paying around 25 percent of its income on rent – but the proportion of pay swallowed up on housing costs rose to more than 40 percent for those in an affordable rented home.