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Affordable housing: building

Last Updated: 3 April 2024

The guidance for Developers below should be read in conjunction with pages 81 to 82 and 143 to 153 of the legacy South Lakeland District Council's Local Plan Core Strategy

Please note that our Local Plan Core Strategy does not apply to land in the Yorkshire Dales or Lake District National Parks.

Contact the relevant national park authority for advice on affordable housing in those areas.

For sites outside the National Parks, Developers should:

Once you have submitted your pre-application, you can:

  • contact our Housing Strategy and Delivery Specialist (for schemes up to 49 homes)
  • contact our Principal Specialist (People) (for schemes of 50 or more homes or 100% social housing schemes)

Further guidance will depend on the specific scheme.

Both the tenure mix and property type mix should be agreed at an early stage.

This information will eventually form part of a legal agreement to secure affordable housing on the site.

We will use evidence from:

  • the South Lakeland Strategic Housing Market Assessment
  • parish housing need surveys where available
  • the Cumbria Choice housing register

Housing need and demand

South Lakeland Strategic Housing Market Assessment 2017 (PDF 7MB / 239 pages) identified a need for 153 affordable homes per year between 2016 and 2036.

Of the affordable housing requirement on a development scheme, we expect Developers to provide, a split of 50% low cost home ownership and 50% low cost rentals.

We have published a First Homes Interim Position Statement (PDF 455KB / 14 pages).

Where 10 or more affordable homes are required:

  • 50% must be low cost home ownership
  • of this 50%, half (25%) must be offered as first homes
  • the other half (25%) no more than 25% of these should be offered as shared ownership properties
  • the remaining 50% of the total affordable homes must be offered as affordable or social rent properties

Where the affordable requirement is less than four homes, the tenure would be expected to be the same for all the affordable homes (sale or rent).

This will be reviewed on an annual basis.

Low cost home ownership (intermediate housing)

  • discounted sale: where the initial price is discounted in line with our affordable housing prices and the discount is applied upon resale
  • shared ownership: where a percentage share of the home is sold and a rent is charged based on the remaining percentage
  • shared equity: where a share of the home is sold but, unlike shared ownership, no rental element is applied
Affordable housing prices: updated November 2023
Property type(minimum sizes in brackets) Affordable housing prices (AHP)(initial fixed sale prices) Notional developer contribution(Open market value (OMV) determined by an independent surveyor)
1 bed flats (50 sq. m) £84,717 OMV less £84,717
2 bed flats (61 sq. m) £96,820 OMV less £96,820
1 bed houses/bungalows (58 sq. m) £102,871 OMV less £102,871
2 bed houses/bungalows (70 sq. m) £114,974 OMV less £114,974
3 bed houses (84 sq. m) £133,128 OMV less £133,128
4 bed houses (97 sq. m) £151,281 OMV less £151,281

Homes are kept affordable by the affordable price being a fixed percentage of the open market value (the 'appropriate percentage').

This is calculated in the following way: AHP divided by OMV multiplied by 100 = appropriate percentage. The re-sale price is then OMV x appropriate percentage.

Affordable homes for rent

These fall into two categories (these are generally held by housing associations, also called Private Registered Providers of Social Housing):

1. Affordable rents: a maximum of 80% of local market rents (including service charges).

2. Social rents: where rents are set in line with national rent charging regime.

In most cases the provision of affordable rents will be acceptable. In exceptional circumstances social rents will be required.

Developers will agree with housing associations how much they pay for affordable homes. Developers should contact housing associations at an early stage to agree the appropriate rent.

Our housing association development partners are:

Monitoring and review

Our affordable housing prices and guidance are reviewed each year.

Section 106 agreements

We are currently reviewing our section 106 agreements.

Contact details: