Councils must build homes in the countryside to stop unscrupulous property developers controlling the supply of affordable homes, campaigners said yesterday.
Some developers get planning permission by pledging large numbers of lower priced homes and community facilities only to renege on the details of the deal before they break ground, according to a report by the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE).
Government figures showed the proportion of affordable homes fell from 35 per cent in 2011-12, to 16 per cent of all new homes built in 2015-16.
“Many councils are falling woefully short of their targets to provide affordable homes,” said Paul Miner, CPRE’s planning campaign manager. “Yet you also have to look at those developers who continually use shady tactics to renege on promises to build affordable homes and new community infrastructure. These are often the promises that win them permission in the first place.”
In one instance, in Bedfordshire, developers promised to build a medical centre and a community centre as part of a 2,700 home development but they sold land for those projects to a supermarket.
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Developers have the whip-hand in negotiations, the CPRE said, because councils are under pressure to meet central government targets. Theresa May promised to build up to 275,000 new homes a year to solve the current housing shortage and if councils don’t provide a suitable plan to build those homes central government can intervene.
“Developers have councils in a bind. It’s either fewer affordable homes or missed housing targets. And either way it’s young people and local people in need who lose out,” Mr Miner added.
Average house prices are already 26 per cent higher in rural areas compared to cities, according to research by the Halifax Building Society, while average earnings in the countryside are 26 per cent lower.
“As just 8 per cent of rural housing is affordable, much of the countryside is already out of reach to those on average incomes. If we don’t change things this will just get worse. The next government must reduce the power of these viability studies, stop highly profitable developers gaming the system and give councils the hard cash to start building houses again.”
The CPRE said at least three local councils — Surrey Heath, Ashfield and Brentwood — had failed to provide any affordable housing last year.
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The Poole unitary authority, which is includes some of England’s most expensive real estate on the Sandbanks peninsula, was among the worst performers with just 5.9 per cent of new homes classed as affordable.
Horsham district council in West Sussex approved a greenfield scheme for 2,750 homes on prime farmland last month. Only 18 per cent of them were affordable.
Affordable homes are those set aside for people, usually families, whose incomes are too low to afford housing at the local market rates. If they are rented, the tenants pay up to 80 per cent of the market rate.
They can also be sold via government-backed schemes such as shared ownership that help people to get on the property ladder.