Affordable Housing

The proposals for Land at Littleham include offering 30% of the properties as Affordable Housing.

Affordable Housing is a specific term which, in England, includes homes for sale or rent through an organisation such as a housing association, for people “whose needs are not met by the private market”.

This specific housing stock is provided for those who cannot, for example, afford to pay rents charged by private landlords, or who cannot immediately afford a mortgage or other way of buying a home for themselves.

So, the term Affordable Housing, in a planning context, does not relate to the price of a home which is for sale on the open market via an estate agent or through a developer.

There are a number of different types of Affordable Housing. The main ones are:

Social Rent - Traditionally, council housing was a form of Social Rent. The cost of the rent is based on a formula which takes into account the size and value of the property, as well as local incomes. The rent is set through the National Rent Regime in England and typically is around 50% of market rents.

Affordable and Intermediate Rent - Affordable Rent applies if a home is let at least 20% below local market rents. Intermediate Rent means the home is let at a price between market rent and Social Rent, as described in the panel on the left.

Shared Ownership - When you buy a home through shared ownership, you buy a share between 10% and 75% of the home’s full market value and pay rent to the landlord for the share they own. You can buy more shares in your home in the future. This is known as ‘staircasing’. If you buy more shares, you pay less rent.

On this site, it is proposed that 30% of the properties would be available as Affordable Housing, in line with policies in the draft East Devon Local Plan. This would see around 123 affordable homes provided on Land at Littleham. The policies say that of this 30%, approximately two-thirds -around 82 properties - should be available as Social Rent, and the remainder at Intermediate Rent or other forms of Affordable Housing.

The Affordable Housing mix would focus on providing two-and three-bedroom homes, with the likely inclusion of around a dozen one-bedroom maisonettes, and some four-bedroom homes.

Open Market Housing

As the more detailed designs for the site progress, the mix of open market housing (1 – 4 beds) will be informed by the local market need.

Community Benefits

Health care, emergency services, library, community and youth facilities, sports and leisure, open space/recreation, transport.

In addition to approximately 123 new affordable homes being made available to people on the housing waiting list, there would also be funding made available to East Devon District Council and Exmouth Town Council.

This would come through the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), which is charged on many new homes built in the district.

At the moment, the levy would raise a little over £175 per square metre of new floorspace created. The levy is not charged on Affordable Housing stock.

Because the exact number of homes to be delivered is not yet known, and because the final designs of those homes have not been drawn up, it is not possible to give definitive figures for how much would be available to the councils, but we estimate the total would be somewhere in the region of £5 million. Of this £5 million, a quarter (£1.25million) would go to Exmouth Town Council because it has a Neighbourhood Plan in place. Without such a plan, the share would be no more than 15%.

In recent years, it was decided that CIL in East Devon should contribute to the expansion of Exmouth Community College and a Devon County Council funding bid to the Government for the extension of Dinan Way.

CIL money has also been spent on protecting habitats in the Exe Estuary and Pebblebed Heaths.

CIL can also be spent on a wide range of projects in East Devon including:

  • Health care facilities

  • Emergency service facilities

  • Library facilities

  • Community and Youth facilities

  • Sports and leisure provision

  • Open space/recreation provision

  • Transport

Exmouth Town Council would receive around £1.25 million in CIL receipts from this scheme. It has used previous CIL funding to support the Bapton Valley multi-use path in Brixington, and Phear Park skatepark flood lights.

In addition to CIL payments, we expect Devon County Council, as the education authority, would seek funding to support local schools, and the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust would seek support for local health services.

These funds would be based on the number of people expected to live in the new development and would be secured by whatare called Section 106 legal agreements.