Housing Needs Supplementary Planning Document consultation (stage two)

Background

The County Durham Plan (CDP) was adopted in October 2020. It provides a framework for new housing developments and helps to assess planning applications up to 2035. This draft SPD supplements a range of policies in the CDP which seek to meet the different housing needs of our residents.

What the SPD includes

• Accessible homes: It provides further guidance on the implementation of M4(2) Accessible and Adaptable housing and what is required for multi-generational homes (typically a home with a grandparent or other older relative(s) living with their children and potentially also grandchildren). Both of these are part of the CDP approach to meeting the housing needs of older people and developers are required to provide these types of properties alongside others when planning new developments.
• Local housing need: It introduces guidance about what should be considered in assessments when determining local area housing needs for affordable or specialist housing in rural areas, as well as to support Neighbourhood Plans and Community Led Housing proposals.
• Purpose built student accommodation: It provides guidance on what should be included in a needs assessment for purpose-built student accommodation. 
• Guidance on space in C Class developments: These cover a range of property types where people stay or live. They include hotels, family homes, homes of multiple occupation, and residential institutions such as care homes. The SPD provides guidance on how to apply the Nationally Described Space Standard for different forms of C Class development.
• First Homes: These are a new form of affordable housing to meet the needs of first time buyers who are unable to afford outright home ownership. The SPD contains a First Homes Interim Policy Statement and includes local eligibility criteria in addition to the national criteria which introduces a lower price cap to ensure that a First Home is genuinely affordable in the County Durham housing market.

Key proposed changes

Following the initial consultation in 2023, the key proposed changes are:

• if a housing needs assessment is needed for new affordable or specialist housing in rural areas, or to support a Neighbourhood Plan or Community Led Housing proposal, it must be signed off by our housing development team
• housing need assessments will now require consultation with Parish and Town Councils as standard
• the First Homes price cap has been increased after being considered as part of an updated viability assessment (this looks at whether sites will be financially viable, by looking at whether the value generated by a development is more than the cost of developing it)
• a section has been included on how we determine how much discount is required to discount market sale affordable homes, which is a type of affordable housing which is sold at a discount of at least 20% below market value
• clarification of that detailed drawings we may request as part of the planning application to prove that houses are accessible and adaptable (M4(2) compliant)
• further clarification on appropriate locations within a site for older persons housing, and requirements of multi-generational homes

Read the Housing Needs Supplementary Planning Document.

Have your say

What happens next

We will consider responses when making our final amendments to the document. Once approved, the SPD will be adopted and will be used to assess planning applications.