FOI request (FOIR-746257030)

Affordable Homes

Requested Wed 03 September 2025
Responded Wed 08 October 2025

Please could you provide, for each of the past five complete financial years, and the first quarter of the current financial year:

1. The total number of affordable homes approved by the council in each year.

2. A breakdown, for each year, of every development approved that included affordable homes and include: the name of the development or road in which it sits, the total number of housing units, the total number of affordable units, the tenure type of the affordable units (that is, social rent, shared ownership).

3. A list of approved developments in each year that did not provide the council's minimum requirement for affordable homes. Please provide the name or street location of the development, the total number of homes in that development, the total number of affordable homes and tenure type, the reason given for not meeting the affordable homes benchmark, and any alternative provided in lieu including the amounts of any cash contribution.

4. What percentage of homes in a development the council says should be classified as affordable in its housing policy.

5. The amount of cash in each of those financial years that was paid by developers in lieu of providing affordable homes, and how much of that cash is yet to be spent.

6. How much money from the pot of cash paid into by developers in lieu of providing affordable homes that was spent on emergency or temporary accommodation.

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Response

Please accept my apologies for the delay in responding.

1. Data not held in this format for approvals. Planning completions data can be found in the Local Plan Monitoring report for the relevant year available online at bottom of webpage:

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

Tables 4,7 and 8 refer to affordable housing. 2024-2025 monitoring report due to be published by year end 2025.

2. Data not held in this format for approvals. Planning completions data can be found in the Local Plan Monitoring report for the relevant year available online at bottom of webpage:

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

Tables 4,7 and 8 refer to affordable housing. 2024-2025 monitoring report due to be published by year end 2025.

3. See tables in the Infrastructure Funding Statement (IFS) and addendum for each year which confirm affordable housing secured by legal agreement or financial alternative:

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

4. Refer to the Hastings Planning Strategy policy H3:

https://www.hastings.gov.uk/planning/policy/adoptedlocalplan/strategy/

Since the adoption of that policy, the definition of affordable housing has changed by Government. The revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) made in 2024:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67aafe8f3b41f783cca46251/NPPF_December_2024.pdf

changed the definition of affordable housing and the starting point for decision making on planning applications is that affordable housing is sought on major applications that result in a net increase of 10 dwellings or more.

5. Refer to IFS for each year and it's addendum where relevant:

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

The monitoring report covering the 2023/2024 monitoring year confirms at Table Ea and in appendix B the value spent on affordable housing that year and what remains. The report covering the 2024/2025 monitoring year is due to be published in December 2025.

6. Zero