Affordable housing
Case reference FOI2019/00499
Published 10 May 2019
Request
In our council tax letter you state that £74 million is being invested in new affordable housing. How and why are tax payers funding affordable housing? My current understanding is that developers give the council money for approving their plans. Developers then build the properties and sell them for profit. Surely the only cost incurred by the council is managing the planning process whereby only small first time homes are approved for development? Please can you breakdown for me how my tax goes towards affordable housing?
Response
The Council is planning to invest in the provision of much needed affordable housing. The Council already own over 5000 rented properties, which are held in a financially ring fenced account - the Housing Revenue Account.
The Housing Revenue Account is used to account for all income and expenditure associated with managing and providing new affordable housing that the Council will own. Income from council tax is not used to support the cost of council housing. The investment in providing new council housing will come from rent and the sale of Council houses.
All applicants, including developers pay a fee to cover the cost of dealing with their application. This is payable whether or not the application is approved. For larger developments of new housing, a condition will generally be attached that requires the developer to build a percentage of the properties as affordable housing. These are then sold at a discount to the open market price to a registered housing provider which could include the Council.
Documents
This is Guildford Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
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