FOI request (FOIR-520536180)

Affordable housing units

Requested Thu 01 June 2023
Responded Mon 19 June 2023

In accordance with the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I write with 5 separate requests for information:

1. How many affordable housing units have been provided as a result of planning agreements related to residential-led developments that were signed in financial years (a) 2020/21 (b) 2021/22, and (c) 2022/23?

2. What percentage of overall housing units in this local authority have been provided by as a result of these planning agreements?

3. How many of the affordable housing units provided as a result of planning agreements related to residential-led developments in 2022/23 were for (a) social rent, (b) affordable rent, (c) shared equity/shared ownership, (d) discounted market housing (including starter homes) and (e) other affordable housing tenure?

4. How much was received by the authority in S106 payments in financial years (a) 2020/21 (b) 2021/22, and (c) 2022/23?

5. How much money received via S106 agreements is held, unspent, by the local planning authority? How much of this figure is specifically earmarked for (a) affordable housing provision, (b) highways improvements (c) education contributions, (d) social infrastructure, (e) healthcare services and (f) other?

Response

Q1-3 Please refer to the Infrastructure Funding Statements on our website:

https://www.hastings.gov.uk/planning/AnnualInfrastructureFundingStatement/

These confirm in table I the non-monetary contributions secured in 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 of the related years report.

IFS 2020-21 direct link:

https://www.hastings.gov.uk/content/planning/pdfs/AnnualInfrastructureFundingStatement2020-21

IFS 2021-22 direct link:

https://www.hastings.gov.uk/content/planning/pdfs/AnnualInfrastructureFundingStatement2021-22

The addendum should also be noted. Direct link:

https://www.hastings.gov.uk/content/planning/pdfs/Infrastructure_Funding_Statement_2019-20_reports.pdf

The Local Plan monitoring report for 2020-2021 is also available on our website directly from:

https://www.hastings.gov.uk/content/planning/planning_policy/pdfs/2020-2021_LPMR_including_appendices.pdf

Or via the main webpage here:

https://www.hastings.gov.uk/planning/policy/localplanmonitoring/

This LPMR covers affordable housing completions in paragraphs 3.22-3.27 and tables 7 and 8.

The Local Plan monitoring reports (LPMR) for 21/22 and 22/23 are not yet available as figures are not yet finalised. They will be shown on the above webpage when they are.

The Infrastructure Funding Statement for 22/23 is also not yet available, it is due to be published in December 2023.

Q4 and 5 Please refer to the Infrastructure Funding Statements (IFS) for the years requested. These confirm the information requested relating to affordable housing money received for 2020-2021:

https://www.hastings.gov.uk/content/planning/pdfs/AnnualInfrastructureFundingStatement2020-21

And 2021-2022:

https://www.hastings.gov.uk/content/planning/pdfs/AnnualInfrastructureFundingStatement2021-22

Appendix 2 of the latest report confirms the money held and forecasted spend for affordable housing and Appendix 1 relates to play, woodland and open space contributions forecasted spend.

You can view copies of full S106 documents online via the public access facility on the website using the 'planning search tool' available here:

https://www.hastings.gov.uk/planning/searching/

The source application numbers relating to S106s can be found in the IFS tables. Inserting any of these into the planning application search bar and choosing the relevant application will enable you to view the documents.

The S106 should appear near the top of the list, if not, you can put the documents into order using the arrows next to the 'document' heading and find the S106 that way.

It is East Sussex County Council that will request contributions where applicable for highways improvements and education contributions and I do not monitor and have no information relating to their spend. East Sussex County Council published IFS can be found on their website which contains a section relating to Hastings contributions.