WEST Devon Borough Council has been lobbying for a change in Government policy to allow more people to achieve affordable homes in the borough. Concerns were recently expressed by members of the council?s planning committee that young people were being driven out of the area by ?exorbitant? house prices. The planning authority has succeeded in its efforts to implement a policy whereby developers have to provide 35 % of affordable housing on large sites. It also has an exception site policy where consent for social housing can be granted on the edge of settlements where permission would normally be refused. Allocations for affordable housing are made from the housing register, but a vacuum in national planning policy currently exists regarding applications by an individual wishing to build a cheap house for somebody they know. Last week?s Times reported the refusal of a proposal at Sydenham Damerel where a couple applied for consent to build a home on their land for their son and his family who could not afford to buy a house locally. Cllr Jane Waterhouse said the area was losing its young families because they could not afford to buy homes, and as a result primary school numbers were plummeting and communities were dying. Head of planning Stephen Gill told the Times he and the council?s chief executive David Incoll had been lobbying the Government to fill this policy vacuum. ?We have been praised for our own policies where we provide 35 per cent social housing on development sites ? a lot of authorities are envious of this ? and for a while now we have been pushing Central Government to determine a policy which provides more low cost housing.?
