Revised NPPF: Delivery of affordable homes

The new NPPF 2018 has provided a number of subtle but important changes in the delivery of homes and this includes the delivery of affordable homes.  The new NPPF has recast the minimum threshold for affordable development and we now await the catch up from the online NPPG, which still records the old thresholds.  Paragraph 63 of the new NPPF robustly states that “…affordable housing should not be sought for residential developments that are not major developments…”.  This excludes land in designated areas such as AONB and National Parks, but the critical change is to the definition of ‘major development’ which is defined as “…development where 10 or more homes will be provided, or the site has an area of 0.5 hectares or more…”. Previously the threshold was more than 10 dwellings and greater than 1,000 sq metres, so not only changing the threshold in respect of the unit numbers but also converting from a floorspace to a site area consideration.  This will particularly have ramifications for rural authorities where 9 executive homes on a small site may no longer require affordable housing.

Author: Justin Wickersham

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