Affordable Housing SPD

Affordable Housing Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) adopted October 2015

The Affordable Housing Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) was adopted by our Executive Committee on 14 October 2015.

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(PDF 436kb)- see explanation of updated financial contributions below

(PDF 891kb)

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The purpose of this SPD is to provide clear policy advice to ensure the delivery of affordable homes in the borough.

First Homes

First Homes are a new type of Affordable Housing. Any developments where Affordable Housing is required now need to include First Homes. See our First Homes webpage - for further information on government's new policy and how this is being implemented in Hertsmere.

2019 NPPF changes to Affordable Housing Thresholds

Changes made to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) in February 2019 clarified that the provision of affordable housing ‘should not be sought for residential developments that are not major developments’ (paragraph 63). The glossary in the NPPF defines major developments as those ‘where 10 or more homes will be provided, or the site has an area of 0.5 hectares or more’.

Consequently, we will only seek the provision of Affordable Housing on residential developments of 10 or more homes (gross) or sites with an area of 0.5 hectares of more.

Affordable Housing will not be sought on developments of 1-9 homes (gross) unless the site has an area of at least 0.5 hectares. This means that we will not seek to apply the requirement in Policy CS4 of the adopted Core Strategy (2013)

The NPPF also states that provision of Affordable Housing may be sought on non-major development sites in ‘designated rural areas’. This relates to areas described under s157(1) of the Housing Act 1985. For Hertsmere, this relates to “the unparished area bounded by the parishes of Ridge, North Mymms, Northaw and Cuffley, the London borough of Enfield and the London Borough of Barnet containing the settlement of Potters Bar”. As Potters Bar cannot reasonably be described as a rural area and the remaining area between the town and the boundaries described in s157 of the Act largely comprises undeveloped Green Belt land, we will not be seeking to apply the provision of Affordable Housing on any sites of fewer than 10 units.

Vacant Building Credit Advisory Note

We have prepared a

(PDF 175kb) on how the credit applies in Hertsmere.

Updated Table D2: Standard Financial Contributions

This table was updated on 4 September 2024 and replaces Table D1 on page 27 of the published SPD. It uses Land Registry sales data for the most recent 36 months to 30 June 2023.

(PDF 436kb)

Archived updates to Table D2

Archived updates to Table D2 are available on request. These are made available for information purposes only (e.g. where they have been used in a past planning application).