Setting sights on providing affordable housing

The Courier, 22 January 2005

Councillors in Fife have approved proposals on how affordable housing can be provided through the planning system.

To make sure that everyone in the kingdom has access to an affordable, warm, secure and well-maintained home that suits them, the proposals seek the involvement of developers and registered social landlords such as housing associations who want to build homes in the region.

The draft Supplementary Guidance On Affordable Housing states that when a builder or developer applies for planning permission to build new homes, some of the homes should be set aside as affordable housing.

Members of the environment and development committee have approved the proposals and chairman Mike Rumney said “We have a real need in Fife for homes that people can afford.

“There has been a substantial amount of homes built over recent years, but at a price that has been beyond the reach of many, and we need to ensure that we can provide and continue to sustain the provision of high quality, well designed, affordable homes.

“This draft guidance will help us meet that need and help us ensure that a wide variety of homes can be provided.

Councillor Rumney went on, “The council’s clear priority is for social rented housing which would be owned and/or managed by registered social landlords.

“Only by working with registered social landlords, builders, land owners and last, but definitely not least, the residents, will we be able to provide housing that meets people’s needs.

“The proposals to address the provision of affordable homes through the planning system will go some way to meeting affordable housing need but it will not be able to solve this issue on it own.”

The new consultative draft structure plan, Fife Matters, sets requirements for housing market areas throughout the region - new developments of 10 houses or more in Dunfermline will need to provide 30% affordable housing, similar sized developments in Cupar will need to provide 40%, while in St Andrews the figure has been set at 45%.

This means that in a new development of 20 homes in Dunfermline, six would need to be affordable homes and, ideally, would be built on the same site.

For smaller sites of between two and 10 homes, Fife Council would ask the developer to provide an appropriate contribution towards affordable housing.

In the Kirkcaldy area, the council will ask for a contribution of 25% of the site capacity. This will go towards wider regeneration as in mid-Fife there is not only a shortage of affordable houses but a mismatch between people’s needs and the types available.

Keith Winter, head of development services, said, “This new draft guidance is based on the findings of the Fife housing needs and affordability study and it provides us with the evidence on which we can advance a number of council policies relating to affordable housing.

“Development services will work closely with builders, registered social landlords and land owners. Through the planning system we can commence making inroads to meet that need.

“Now that committee has given approval for the guidance to go to consultation, we hope that this will stimulate comments and that the feedback we receive will allow us to strengthen the guidance.

“We are also about to start public consultation on our draft 20-year structure plan, Fife Matters, so we will be able to ensure that the broad housing policies outlined therein and the detailed draft guidance match up to provide practical and realistic solutions.’