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Some definitions for your reference whilst completing the neighbourhood plan questionnaire.

Affordable and Social Housing

 Affordable housing is social rented, affordable rented and intermediate housing, provided to eligible households whose needs are not met by the market. Eligibility is determined with regard to local incomes and local house prices.

Affordable housing should include provisions to remain at an affordable price for future eligible households or for the subsidy to be recycled for alternative affordable housing provision.

Social rented housing is owned by local authorities and private registered providers for which guideline target rents are determined through the national rent regime. It may also be owned by other persons and provided under equivalent rental arrangements to the above, as agreed with the local authority or with the Homes and Communities Agency.

Affordable rented housing is let by local authorities or private registered providers of social housing to households who are eligible for social rented housing. Affordable Rent is subject to rent controls that require a rent of no more than 80 per cent of the local market rent (including service charges, where applicable).

Intermediate housing is homes for sale and rent provided at a cost above social rent, but below market levels subject to the criteria in the Affordable Housing definition above. These can include shared equity (shared ownership and equity loans), other low cost homes for sale and intermediate rent, but not affordable rented housing. Homes that do not meet the above definition of affordable housing, such as ‘low cost market’ housing, may not be considered as affordable housing for planning purposes.

Self Build

Projects where someone directly organises the design and construction of their new home. This covers quite a wide range of projects. The most obvious example is a traditional ‘DIY self-build’ home, where the self-builder selects the design they want and then does much of the actual construction work themselves. But self-build also includes projects where the self- builder arranges for architect/contractor to build their home for them; and those projects that are delivered by kit home companies (where the self-builder still has to find the plot, arrange for the slab to be installed and then has to organise the kit home company to build the property for them). Many community-led projects are defined as self builds too – as the members of the community often do all the organising and often quite a bit of the construction work.

Some people have summarised self-build homes as those where people roll their sleeves up and get their hands dirty by organising or doing the physical work themselves.

Community Land Trusts

A Community Land Trust (CLT) is a not for profit community-based organisation run by volunteers that delivers housing and other community facilities at permanently affordable levels for local people.

It does this by holding the land in trust, separating its value from that of the building that stands upon it, and leasing it to home owners on long leases or letting it out at an affordable rent. The CLT is then able to deliver permanently affordable housing by fixing the price the homes should be sold at in the future. Any increase in the value of the land will be locked in by the CLT for the permanent benefit of the community.

CLTs range in size, can be rural or urban and provide a variety of housing tenures as well as other community facilities, including workspaces, energy generation, community food and farming.  A CLT is usually constituted as an Industrial and Provident Society or Company Limited by Guarantee, and may or may not have charitable status. Despite these different forms and activities, CLTs tend to have in common the aims of meeting local housing needs providing long-term community benefit.