Countywide Local Plan ‘will set in stone’ 35% affordable housing in Aylesbury Vale town

Buckingham will be able to continue with its 35 per cent affordable housing requirement for new developments when the new Local Plan for Buckinghamshire is brought in, councillors have learned.

At the town council Planning Committee meeting on October 17, councillors considered their response to the consultation currently being conducted by Bucks Council for this section of the draft Local Plan for Bucks.

The consultation document confirms that the Local Plan for Bucks will require a minimum of 25 per cent of housing developments of 11 or more dwellings to be affordable housing (80 per cent of these for rent and 20 per cent shared ownership).

But where a Neighbourhood Plan has a larger percentage, the Neighbourhood Plan will be honoured.

Buckingham’s Neighbourhood Plan states that 35 per cent affordable housing is required for developments within the plan boundary, and members were reassured to learn that this will continue to be the case.

Planning Committee chairman Mark Cole said: “Our neighbourhood plan foresaw the need to provide more affordable housing. There are far too many local people on the housing waiting list in north Bucks.

"Buckinghamshire Council itself acknowledges on its Home Choice website that ‘applicants can expect to wait several years for accommodation, especially larger families’.

“We have fiercely defended our 35 per cent affordable percentage since the Buckingham Neighbourhood Plan was made, having constantly questioned why the VALP figure is so much lower. So it is gratifying that the draft countywide Local Plan will set in stone our 35 per cent.”