Planning for Rutland’s Future - Issues and Options Consultation
Issue 3: Meeting identified current and future housing needs
Strategic Objective 3: Meeting Rutland's identified current and future diverse housing needs, including the affordability of housing, through the provision of high-quality new homes.
The Government's NPPF objective is to significantly boost the overall supply of housing as well as meeting wider development needs. The NPPF confirms that affordable housing should be part of the overall housing mix on sites of 10 dwellings and above and confirms that the definition of 'affordable housing' includes:
- Affordable housing for rent.
- First Homes, a government scheme that will provide discounted homes of 30% on the market price to first time buyers
- Discounted market sales housing;
- And "Other affordable routes to home ownership" such as shared ownership, relevant equity loans, other low-cost homes for sale (at a price equivalent to at least 20% below local market value) and rent to buy (which includes a period of intermediate rent).
Graphic showing Average house prices and rental costs and the ratio of these to local incomes
It is considered the policies in the withdrawn Local Plan will provide a useful starting point for developing policies in the New Local Plan.
The overall need for affordable housing will be quantified through Strategic Housing
Market Assessment which will help determine the overall need for affordable housing and the proposed mix of new housing. This will also involve liaising with neighbouring authorities. The assessment will be able to look at the relative contributions that the different affordable housing tenures can make to meeting local needs such as:
- Specialist housing;
- Homes for an ageing population;
- Custom and self-build housing.
Question 16 Options for Housing Mix
Which option do you consider to be most appropriate to include in the Rutland Local Plan?
Option A: Maintain the current flexibility on the different house types/sizes that should be provided by developers and encourage the mix to reflect local needs.
Option B: Set specific requirements for the types and mix of homes that should be provided on development sites, to ensure that new housing more closely matches need.
Affordable Housing
In addition to setting out the overall quantity of affordable housing to be provided, the Local Plan should also ensure that the most appropriate types of affordable housing are provided to help meet local needs.
The current adopted Planning Obligations SPD, alongside national policy and local policy and guidance seeks to deliver 30% affordable housing on sites of 11 or more houses. Sites outside the parishes of Oakham and Uppingham of between six and ten dwellings inclusive pay a broadly equivalent commuted sum for the provision of affordable housing off-site. The Council's current approach seeks to require that of the affordable homes provided on a site, 33% should be for affordable home ownership (e.g., discounted sale or shared ownership) and 67% for affordable/social rental, subject to viability. This split is not currently set out within Local Plan policy.
The affordability of these different types of housing can vary significantly and some are more 'affordable' than others taking into account local incomes and market house prices. Affordable rent homes provided in Rutland are generally rented to tenants at a maximum of 80% of local market rents or the Local Housing Allowance rate, whichever is the lowest. In recent years many shared ownership products have been offered by housing associations (which buy the property off developers), where purchasers buy an initial share of a home, and pay rent on the remaining share, with the ability to buy an increasing share of the home over time. Shared ownership homes are generally more preferable in financial terms for developers as they can be sold with a smaller discount compared to discounted sale and affordable rental homes.
The Government is seeking to increase levels of home ownership and is now requiring the first 25% of affordable homes secured through developer contributions to be identified as 'First Homes'. First Homes are to be sold at a discount of at least 30% from the open market value, with a maximum price cap of £250,000 on first sale, to first time buyers with a maximum household income of £80,000. The percentage discount is retained for future purchasers. The NPPF sets an overall minimum site requirement of 10% affordable home ownership.
Question 17 Options for Affordable Housing
Which option do you consider to be most appropriate to include in the Rutland Local Plan?
Option A: Maintain current 67%/33% split between affordable rental and affordable home ownership on development sites and embed this within Local Plan policy.
This option would be supported by the 2019 SHMA which concluded overall that this split between rented and low-cost home ownership is appropriate.
Option B: Increase the proportion of affordable home ownership properties required within the affordable provision on development sites.
This option would recognise the government's strong push to increase levels of home ownership but would not support the Council's strong local priority to increase affordable rent provision nor the level of need outlined in the SHMA.
Option C: Increase the proportion of affordable rent properties required within the affordable provision on development sites.
This option would increase the proportion of affordable homes that would be required to be for affordable rent above the current ratios, and so provide more homes for those most in need.
Self-Build and Custom Build Housing
National planning policy requires the Council to assess the demand for self-build and custom build housing in Rutland and to reflect it in proposed planning policies. Self-build and custom build housing has a broad definition in planning legislation and is not limited to the narrow definition of people building their own homes themselves. It can include for example someone commissioning an architect to design, and then a builder to build a home to their own specification and can also include conversions of buildings where there is substantial building work.
The Council has a legal duty to keep a register of people or groups seeking to acquire a plot for self-building and to have regard to this when carrying out Council functions. It also has a legal duty to grant enough planning permissions for self-build plots to meet local demand in Rutland. Information on the Council's self-build register and the number of plots being granted permission shows that Rutland is meeting the duty in granting enough planning permissions for self-build plots.
Question 18 Options for Self and Custom Build
Which option do you consider to be most appropriate to include in the Rutland Local Plan?
Option A: Encourage self-build development by setting out where it will be supported in principle.
Option B: Consider allocating sites specifically for self-build housing or requiring a proportion of large housing sites to be available for self-builders. This option would ensure more land and plots are available to self-builders. By identifying sites in the Local Plan solely for self-build housing we could help prospective self-builders obtain suitable land. This could potentially be an option for groups of individuals looking to self-build as the Local Plan will only allocate sites capable of delivering a minimum of 10 homes. This would require community groups to help identify potential sites of interest and for landowners to be willing to make sites available for self-builders, potentially at a lower cost than they would achieve on the open market. some Councils require developers to provide a proportion of plots on their development sites as serviced plots and to make them available to self-builders. This could involve specifying a site size threshold at which developers would be expected to make serviced self-build plots available and would likely require the production of further planning guidance to explain how the policy might work in practice.
Older Person's Housing
Rutland has a significantly older population than regionally and nationally; looking to the future the population of the County will continue to age at a faster rate. A growing older population will likely lead to an increase in those living alone, living in care homes, having a fall and provision of unpaid care. It is important that suitable housing is provided to meet the needs of older people. This could be general market housing such as bungalows or housing that is accessible and easily adaptable, or specialist forms of housing, ranging from retirement apartments to extra care housing, to residential care homes.
The 2019 SHMA identified that the number of older people in Rutland (aged 55+) was expected to increase substantially during the period 2018 to 2036, leading to a need for specialist housing for older people. Given that the number of older people is expected to increase in the future and that the number of single person households is expected to increase this would suggest (if occupancy patterns remain the same) that there will be a notable demand for smaller housing from the ageing population. In addition to homes for an ageing population, the Council's Older People's Accommodation Market Position Statement 2021 projects that existing residential and nursing care beds, taking account of vacant beds and a new home already with planning consent, will be sufficient until 2025. The annual additional demand from the SHMA 2019 is 16.55 beds (calculated from Figure 5.17), which for the 11 years 2025-36 projects a need for an additional 182 beds. These figures will be revised as and when the Market Position Statement is updated during the course of the preparation of the Local Plan.
There are a number of ways that the Local Plan can help ensure suitable housing is provided to meet the needs of older people. One important factor is ensuring that all new homes that are built are accessible and can easily be adapted as people's needs and mobility change over their lifetime. This helps people stay in their own home as they age if that is their preference. In 2020, the Government consulted on proposals to increase accessible housing, but is yet to publish the outcome of this consultation.
Question 19 Options for Older Person's Housing
Which option do you consider to be most appropriate to include in the Rutland Local Plan?
Option A: To require all or a proportion of new homes to be built to higher Building Regulations for accessibility and future adaptation.
Option B: To identify sites specifically for specialist housing for older people such as support housing or extra care schemes; this policy approach could also consider requiring certain types of housing to be provided on development sites as part of the mix, such as bungalows.
Option C – both of the above requirements
Gypsy & Travellers and Travelling Show People
Government Planning Policy for Traveller Sites (2015) is that local planning authorities should make their own assessment of the need for sites and that Local Plans should include fair, realistic and inclusive policies. They should set pitch targets for Gypsies and Travellers and plot targets for Travelling Show People, setting a 5-year supply of deliverable sites and identifying a longer-term supply of developable sites or broad locations for growth. It set out an outstanding need for both pitches for Gypsies and Travellers and plots for Travelling Show people.
The Council intends to review and update the 2016 Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment (GTAA) and consider whether the future need in Rutland still arises from the growth of existing families that are already resident in the County. It needs to consider its approach of how to respond to those needs where they arise and consider the scope for the extension of existing sites together with any suitable policy compliant application alongside any new allocations required to meet identified needs. The Council will need to work with stakeholders to ensure that this need is met.
Question 20 Policy Approach for Gypsy & Travellers and Travelling Show People Accommodation
The proposed policy approach in the Rutland Local Plan is to review the findings of the forthcoming Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment (GTAA), and then if necessary:
- set a new pitch requirement and
- identify sites to meet need identified in the study.
Do you support this approach to planning for the housing needs of Gypsies, Travellers and Travelling Show People?
Question 21
Do you have any additional suggestions or comments about how the Local Plan can meet current and future housing needs?
