Affordable Housing Provision

The Local Plan 2030 sets out the council’s requirements for affordable housing in new residential developments in Policy HOU1. The purpose of this Affordable Housing Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) is to inform applicants in more detail of what the council will expect to secure in terms of affordable housing provision in new residential development.

Affordable Housing – June 2019 advice note

The viability study carried out to provide the evidence for Policy HOU1 – Affordable Housing, used data based on the ward areas prior to the May 2019 parish and ward boundary changes. For this reason the map on page 198 of the Local Plan largely reflects the ward boundaries of the borough at submission of the plan. The policy supporting text also lists the wards included in each of the affordable housing viability zones.

The boundary amendments that came in at the May elections brought about a number of changes to the boundaries of the urban wards. This means that ward boundaries may now not match the viability zone boundaries. For example, the Victoria ward has been enlarged to include what was part of Godinton, and where previously all of Victoria ward was in Zone A (Ashford Town), it now contains areas that are in Zone B (Ashford Hinterlands).

Therefore for the purpose of applying HOU1, you should rely only on the Local Plan Policies Map and not the list of wards in the policy supporting text.

If you need confirmation on whether a site is within Zone A, B or C then please contact the Planning Policy team on 01233 330229.

The Affordable Housing SPD [pdf] 3MB was adopted by the council in February 2009.

For more information about Rural Local Needs Housing, or applying for affordable housing, please visit the Affordable Housing page.