Object

Representation ID: 65477

Received: 27/06/2014

Respondent: King Henry VIII Endowed Trust (Warwick)

Agent: AMEC

Legally compliant? Yes

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? Yes

We broadly support the 40% affordable housing target to meet local needs. However the policy wording may not allow sufficient flexibility to take into account viability or site specific factors. Not in all cases will 40% affordable housing be viable.

Viability is referred to in the second paragraph of the policy; however this appears to relate solely to the form of provision, its location on site and the means of delivery.

Whilst we acknowledge that the SHMA is an important source of housing needs information, applying this policy rigidly may not necessarily assist in meeting local housing needs. The SHMA is only a 'snapshot' in time and will not always reflect the dynamic nature of the housing market. We would emphasise the need for flexibility to ensure that a wider range of factors can also be taken into account in determining the overall housing mix. These may include site specific factors relating to the existing local area or site specific viability factors.

There is a very real danger that pockets of relative social exclusion may result and indeed that the mix prescribed for the urban extension may prejudice its compatibility and full social integration into the main core community to which it relates. Such dangers are obviously exacerbated in circumstances in which relatively high percentages of affordable housing and, within this, relatively high proportions of social rented tenures are being inflexibly required, with no scope for reasonable negotiation.