Developing affordable housing in Carlisle
In order to meet the housing needs of its
residents, Carlisle City Council continually strives towards the
delivery of affordable housing in the district.
What is affordable housing?
Affordable housing is housing made available
to those who can not afford to buy or rent on the open market; this
can either be social rented housing (usually through housing
associations) or intermediate housing (which can include discounted
sale and shared ownership), with prices determined with regard to
local incomes and local house prices. Affordable housing must
be provided in perpetuity, ensuring the affordable price is
maintained for future eligible households.
You can find out more about how the government
defines affordable housing by downloading
Planning Policy Statement 3 from the Communities and Local
Government website.
Deliver affordable housing
In conjunction with local
housing associations, we bid for funding from the Homes and
Communities Agency to develop affordable housing schemes.
These developments have to meet an identified need in the Carlisle
district, as well as meeting HCA priorities, such as being highly
energy efficient. We have recently been awarded funding to
develop sites at Gelt Rise, Brampton and Seatoller, Morton.
We make land available at
discounted prices to enable local associations to develop
affordable housing schemes. The scheme at Gelt Rise is on
land released for affordable housing to Two Castles Housing
Association by the Council.
We negotiate an affordable
housing contribution on most new developments, working with
policies H5 and H6 from the Carlisle District Local Plan.
- Policy H5 states that an affordable housing
contribution of 30% of the units is required on any proposed
development of 10 or more dwellings. In rural areas, the
contribution will be:
1. 25% of housing on large sites (over 0.8ha or 25
dwellings)
2. 20% of housing on medium sites (over 0.3ha or 10
dwellings)
3. 10% of housing on small sites (over 0.1ha or 3 units)
All affordable units should be provided at a
discount of 25-30% of market value units.
Contacting the Council about an affordable housing development
or contribution
If you are a developer looking
to bring forward a housing site, you need to contact the planning
department, but you will need to check whether your development
triggers the affordable housing clause. If so, you should
speak to us as early as possible to get our view on the type and
amount of affordable housing which is required. If you are
looking to develop on a rural exception site, you need to contact
the housing strategy team as soon as possible as any housing built
on these sites must be affordable.
Please contact the Housing Development Officer on 01228
817323 or e-mail housing@carlisle.gov.uk