Site Size and Threshold for Affordable Housing

Policy HOU5 requires affordable housing to be included on all sites greater than 0.1 hectares (ha) or on sites with a capacity for 5 or more units. This threshold ensures that concerns around financial viability are offset for particularly small schemes, reducing the burden on small-scale developments. Where a site is smaller than 0.1ha, but is capable of accommodating 5 or more units, the requirements of Policy HOU5 will apply. Equally, the requirements of Policy HOU5 also apply where a site is greater than 0.1ha, but fewer than 5 residential units are proposed. This is most likely to involve a mix of uses within a single development (see Figure 3.1 overleaf for illustrative examples).