In a welcome move Brent's Resources and Public Realm Scrutiny Committee is to set up a Task Group on Affordable Housing in New Developments.
This has been a controversial issue for some years now, not least in terms of what 'affordable' actually means. The brief of the Task Group has been widened from the original focus on Viability Assessments - the procedure in which developers make a case for providing less affordable housing on the basis that otherwise the development is not financially viable.
The membership of the Task group has not been finalised but its Chair will be Cllr Neil Nerva and Vice Chair Cllr Robert Johnson.
The draft terms of reference look promising although the penultimate one should perhaps be first:
This has been a controversial issue for some years now, not least in terms of what 'affordable' actually means. The brief of the Task Group has been widened from the original focus on Viability Assessments - the procedure in which developers make a case for providing less affordable housing on the basis that otherwise the development is not financially viable.
The membership of the Task group has not been finalised but its Chair will be Cllr Neil Nerva and Vice Chair Cllr Robert Johnson.
The draft terms of reference look promising although the penultimate one should perhaps be first:
Affordable Housing in New Developments Task Group Terms of Reference
· To understand the policy context of subsidising housing and the barriers and solutions to affordable housing delivery
· Examine forthcoming changes to regional and national planning policy and guidance
· Analyse the supply of affordable homes (numbers and percentage) from new developments in Brent over the past 10 years
· Review best practice from other London boroughs
· Understand the full range of “affordable” and “intermediate” housing
· Learn from case studies in Brent where planning targets for affordable housing have been met
· Examine how land owned by public authorities can contribute to targets for affordable housing
· Understand if Brent is maximising the affordable housing contributions from developers and whether better use could be made of late stage reviews and Section 106 payments
· Investigate alternative models for delivery of genuinely affordable homes, such as Community Land Trusts
· Understand what the council believes is genuinely affordable for communities in Brent
· Gather evidence to feed into and influence the development of the new Local Plan and Housing Strategy