FI16056

Request

I’m looking into the supply and demand of affordable housing across the South East. 

Are you able to give me the figures for how many affordable new homes were built from 2020 – present broken down into years? 

What is your target for each year? 

Do you have the breakdown of what sort of affordable homes they were? 

And do you have the analysis of numbers of affordable homes promised by developers against the number of affordable homes delivered?

Response

Dover District Council monitors housing annually and published our findings in the Authority Monitoring Report (AMR). The monitoring period is from 1st April- 31st March each year. Please note we are only able to provide data from the following monitoring periods, as information for this current monitoring period 2024-25 is currently unavailable. Once the data has been processed, this will be published on our website here

  • 2020-21
  • 2021-22
  • 2022-23
  • 2023-24

In Chapter 3 of the AMR - Affordable Housing – The Council’s policy on affordable housing is set out. Up to 15th October 2024, Policy DM5 of the Core Strategy (2010), required residential developments of 15 or more dwellings, to provide 30% of the total homes as affordable homes and for developments of between 5 and 14 dwellings to make a contribution towards the provision of affordable housing in the District. 

On the 16th October 2024 when the new Local Plan was adopted, a new Affordable Housing Policy SP5 was introduced, requiring a percentage of affordable housing on schemes of 10 dwellings or more (and on sites of 0.5 hectares or more) across the district, and in Designated Rural Areas on schemes of 6 dwellings or more, with provision being not less than 30% of the total housing provided on the site. This is except for the Dover Urban Area, as set out on the policies map, where there will be no requirement for affordable housing to be provided due to viability issues. 

Q2. Dover District Council do not have a target for building affordable housing each year, however as set out in the Local Plan, the SHMA (Strategic Housing Market Assessment) identified a need for 167 new affordable homes per year in the District, which justifies the overall 30% policy requirement for affordable homes in  Policy SP5, as set out above. 

Q4. We do not have an analysis of the numbers of affordable units completed vs those granted planning permission, in terms of whether the units changed tenure. If an applicant wishes to amend a consent previously granted, they would need to submit a revised or amended planning application. However, the affordable housing agreed would be secured through a S106 legal agreement and the developer wanted to change the number of units they agreed to deliver in that document, they would need to apply for a Deed of Variation (DoV) agreement, to change the terms of the S106 and evidence provided to support the request to change (such as a viability appraisal). If a DoV, amendment or new application was agreed in relation to Affordable Housing mix, the developer would then only be obliged to build the number of units agreed upon. If you have specific application queries in relation to this, please contact us. 

AMR 2020-21

Policy DM5 to be applied

Q1. 75 affordable homes were built

Q3. This information is not available in the AMR 2020-21 

AMR 2021-2022

Policy DM5 to be applied

Q1. 116 affordable homes were built

Q3. This information is not available in the AMR 2021-22 

AMR 2022-2023

Policy DM5 to be applied

Q1. 135 affordable homes were built

Q3. This information is not available in the AMR 2022-23 

AMR 2023-24

Policy SP5 to be applied

Q1. 162 affordable homes were built

Q3. For a breakdown on the type/tenure of Affordable housing built in 2023-24 please read the Appendix to the AMR under chapter “Affordable Housing Completions 23/24”