Response to Para.2.16
The Rowington Almshouse Charity would like to see area R133 (land at the apex of Queen's Drive and Old Warwick Road in Rowington) explicitly included in the Local Plan as a potential site for the development of Affordable Housing.
The Rowington Almshouse Charity has been a provider of social housing for more than 100 years and currently provides 19 one-bedroom bungalows in Beech Close and The Avenue.
The Charity's Scheme requires that almshouses be offered to those "in need, hardship or distress and resident in Rowington and adjacent parishes". A test of financial means is applied but there is no age test. Rents are slightly below assessed Fair Rent for social housing.
Over the past decade, trustees have appointed residents of all ages, leading to a diverse, vibrant and self-supporting community. This has also provided valuable and practical insight into the true housing needs for people of limited financial means in the local rural area.
The Charity therefore believes that it is a long-standing Provider of social housing and we are currently exploring being formally recognised as such.
Our experience confirms the population trends described in Sections 2.2 to 2.10, i.e. a stagnant, ageing population with younger working people of modest means being forced to move out of the local rural area because of the lack of affordable housing resulting from the continuing gentrification of both the population and the housing stock. Current almshouse residents include working couples and single people, including divorcees who, having had to leave the family home, would have been forced to move away from the village and from their children if an almshouse had not been available.
Housing need is demonstrated by the fact that there are generally several well-qualified applicants for each almshouse vacancy, and most of these are younger working people of the type described above, demonstrating that it is this segment of the population which currently experiences the greatest housing need.
The Charity has sound finances with substantial reserves, and potential access to further advantageous finance through the Almshouse Association. The trustees are exploring options for a modest development (in the range 4-10 units) of additional 1-2 bedroom units within the Parish, thus making a contribution to a re-balancing of the population profile and a diversification of the housing stock as envisaged in §2.10 (2).
One clear option is an extension to the existing development of Beech Close into area R133. The landowner is sympathetic to the Charity's objectives, giving an excellent basis for collaboration. In addition the Charity is exploring the option of acting as a Section 106 Provider to the proposed development at Meadow House, Kingswood (see our response to §7.10).
Referring to §2.16, we believe that the necessary conditions for a rural exception planning consent would be satisfied as follows:
*We believe that Rowington Parish Council would support such a development
*A previous housing needs survey supported the grant of planning consent for the building in 2006 of two new units on the present almshouse site. We believe that a suitably focused new survey would confirm recent experience from almshouse applications of a significant unmet housing need among younger working people with strong connections to the Parish.
*The Charity believes that it qualifies as a "supportive social housing landlord" as a long-standing provider of social housing in the Parish.
*Area R133 is in the heart of Rowington village, in close proximity to local facilities including Rowington Village Hall, Tennis and Cricket Clubs, The Rowington Club, Allotments, Local bus routes and Itinerant tradesmen (fishmonger, etc).
*Additional affordable housing would increase the utilisation of the above facilities and enhance their sustainability