Object

Representation ID: 22417

Received: 16/03/2020

Respondent: Norwich Green Party

We object to the 28% affordable housing target for Norwich and want to see it increased to 33%. Indeed, figures in the SHMA give 38.2% overall affordable housing need for Norwich City Council area. Norwich has a substantial waiting list for social housing. The higher costs of developing on brownfield land in the city centre should be off-set by external national government funding such as HIF. In a case such as Anglia Square, where £15m of HIF money has been secured for site preparation, we consider that this has been off-set by the developer wasting money on an expensive glitzy project which includes a 20-storey tower.
The policy of successive governments to provide sufficient affordable housing on the back of market housing has been a failure. There has been long-standing under-delivery of affordable homes in Greater Norwich despite the Councils adopting a higher than necessary housing target in the JCS. Developers have run rings around the Councils in claiming lack of viability as a reason for not meeting the 33% policy requirement. At the same time, they have provided houses on countryside in South Norfolk and Broadland at a price which is out of the reach of many people. Simply increasing the housing target as a means of providing sufficient affordable housing has not worked and has allowed developers to game the system.