Half of affordable new homes in rural England could be at risk if planning rules relaxed, analysis shows

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• Armand1@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  The government has proposed ending affordable housing quotas – known as section 106 agreements – for new developments of between 10 and 49 houses in an effort to jumpstart sluggish housebuilding rates. Ministers are due to make a final decision within weeks on whether developers should be allowed to make cash payments to local authorities instead.

  Under the proposals being considered for medium-sized developments, housebuilders would be allowed to make payments to councils in lieu of including affordable homes in their proposals. That money would be earmarked to build affordable housing elsewhere.

  Analysis of government figures by the National Housing Federation (NHF), however, suggests that in the most rural areas of England, more than half of all affordable homes are built on developments of this size.

  Sounds like a nuanced issue.

  That money could be more efficiently spent on council housing than affordable housing, but it all depends on whether councils would actually pull their fingers out and do it, and whether the cash payments would be sufficient to offset the affordable housing.

  Right now, the affordable housing via the existing system can help people put of homelessness, but there aren’t enough.

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