What is the Council doing to ensure more affordable homes are built?

There are three ways in which the Council is working to ensure more new affordable homes are built in the City:

 

 

The Government funds the National Affordable Housing Programme, through an organisation called the Housing Corporation.

 

The Housing Corporation gives Social Housing Grant to Registered Social Landlords (often known as Housing Associations), which they use to build or acquire new affordable homes.

 

The Housing Corporation works in partnership with the Council to identify opportunities and has funded many schemes in Sheffield in recent times, including:

 

 

In July 2006, the Council adopted new Planning Guidance on Affordable Housing.

 

The guidance says that, on new housing developments of 25 homes or more, the developer must provide up to 20% of the homes as affordable. The exact amount of affordable homes will depend on the type of housing provided and the location of the site.

 

Normally, the developer will build the affordable homes and then sell them to a Housing Association at a discounted price.

 

New affordable homes have already been provided through this method in areas such as Mosborough, Middlewood, Woodseats, Sandygate, Ecclesfield and Crookes. Far more will be built, across the city, in the coming years.

 

 

Sometimes, Housing Associations are able to build new affordable housing using only their own resources. These are often mixed schemes where profits from homes sold on the private market are used to subsidise affordable housing within the same development.

 

Derwent Living are one Housing Association who have provided affordable homes in Sheffield using this method, at their 'Easy Living' city centre developments, Columbia Place, Kelham Mills and 'The Cube', Shoreham Street, S1.  For more information on these developments, go to the Derwent Living website.