Saffron Housing, in association with our Parish Council have undertaken a housing need survey in Hempnall which has demonstrated the following need for Affordable Housing in our village:
5 x 2 Bedroom House - Shared Ownership
1 x 3 Bedroom House - Shared Ownership

6 x 1 Bedroom dwellings - Affordable Rent
1 x 2 Bedroom Wheelchair Bungalow - Affordable Rent
1 x 2 Bedroom Lifetime Homes Bungalow - Affordable Rent
1 x 2 Bedroom dwellings - Affordable Rent

We support the provision of this housing in the village as long as it is provided on an exception site and the obvious location for such a development would be on land that SNC owns adjacent to the existing social housing at Millfields. This land was originally designated for social housing and was referred to as the site for Millfields phase 2 on plans dating from the time that Millfields (phase one) was built. it is an ideal site to accommodate the number and type of dwellings that were identified in the Saffron survey.

We note however that SNC has put this site forward for inclusion in the GNLP for market housing. The Parish Council does not support allocating new sites for housing if they are located outside the current development boundary of the village and therefore has objected to the proposal that this site be included in the GNLP. However, as already stated, we do support the delineation of this site as an Exception site to accommodate the identified housing need. Treating it as an Exception site would accord with the South Norfolk Council's original intention of using the site for social housing.

we fully understand that if SNC makes this an Exception site, it has financial implications but there is a need for affordable housing in the village and the District Council should play its part in addressing this need. In the past we have been unable to secure an Exception site elsewhere in the village due to the reluctance of landowners to make land available for this purpose. Surely a responsible local authority should prioritise the provision of a proven need for an Exception site above an aspiration to profit from the development of the site as a location for market housing.

Annual Monitoring Reports of the Joint Core Strategy clearly demonstrate the failure of the current local plan to deliver the required amount of social housing (overall affordable housing averages only 11% of the total) and the propensity of developers to build houses with 3 or more bedrooms in order to maximise profits. If the site is included in the GNLP it will be mainly used as a site for large houses and Hempnall already has a more than adequate supply of such dwellings as evidenced by the large number of "For Sale" boards outside a considerable number of large houses in the village - supply of this type of property clearly outstrips demand.

The only way to guarantee the provision of the identified need for genuinely affordable social housing in Hempnall is via an Exception site and we urge SNC to support us in this matter. If a local authority cannot put need above greed then who can?

Hempnall Parish Council has submitted further reps to the GNLP process outlining the policies and approach that it is applying in response to the emerging GNLP.