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Government floats ‘national, non-negotiable’ affordable housing threshold
The government may move to nationally set “non-negotiable” requirements for affordable housing contribution, it revealed today.
The policy is mooted in a consultation document on reforms to the developer contribution system published today as part of the National Planning Policy Framework shake-up.
It states: “These changes will provide continuity and certainty for developers in the short term. In the longer term, the government will continue to explore options for going further.
“One option could be for contributions to affordable housing and infrastructure to be set nationally, and to be non-negotiable.
“Further consultation would be required and appropriate transitional arrangements would need to be put in place before any such approach was undertaken.
“This would allow for developers to take account of reforms and reflect the contributions as they secure sites for development.”
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The document repeats this suggestion three times but does not provide any further detail on the measures being considered.
However, a “non-negotiable” national affordable housing threshold would go beyond London mayor Sadiq Khan’s two-track approach, which sees developments offering less than the 35% affordable policy subject to closer scrutiny.
The reforms unveiled today also include a standard form approach to Section 106 agreements and changes to viability assessments aimed at making it harder for developers to dodge affordable housing commitments.
The proposals are out for consultation until 10 May.
At-a-glance: the proposed planning changes
These are the key changes to the National Planning Policy Framework outlined on 5 March 2018:
- A shake-up of viability assessments making it harder for developers to negotiate down affordable housing contributions
- Reform of Section 106 and the Community Infrastructure Levy to make the systems simpler and more standardised
- Introduction of Housing Delivery Targets forcing councils to oversee delivery of new homes, first proposed in the Housing White Paper
- Stronger protections for the green belt
