‘Is 75 per cent affordable housing target deterring developers from building in strath?’
A Cairngorms National Park Authority member has expressed concerns that an affordable housing target of 75 per cent by 2030 could frighten off developers and compound the local housing crisis.
Park officers gave an update on the progress for meeting key targets including for housing within the National Park Partnership Plan at the latest meeting of the board on Friday.
The park has set a target of 75 per cent of all new housing to be for social rent, mid-market rent or other affordable categories by 2030
Officers said that whilst good progress is being made demand for housing remains high and the CNPA will not meet the 75 per cent target.
Board member Russell Jones said: “I think that's a very laudable target and fantastic but is it actually achievable?
“And do we run the risk of developers not coming to work in the national park because they can't make money by building 75 per cent of affordable housing.
“It's all well having these targets but not if we're never going to reach it. Should we not be talking to developers and saying ‘What is achievable? What's the number?’.
“And if that's 45 per cent or 50 per cent then let's just hang our hat on that and say that's what we're going for instead of the 75 per cent which - from talking to developers - they don't seem to think is possible.”
CNPA officers said the objective is about as much new affordable and mid-market housing as possible being delivered.
They said significant progress is being made in the strath where delivery of affordable and mid-market housing via Highland Council’s Strategic Housing Investment Plan is ‘sustaining historically high rates’.
Gavin Miles, the park’s director of planning and place purpose, stressed that the 75 per cent target can only be reached with massive investment from the public sector.
Mr Miles said: “It would not be possible for most developers to do this on their own (75 per cent affordable housing) but it wasn't intended to be simply that we were going to use the market to do this.
“This requires massive investment from the public sector to reach those targets.”
He said the range of actions identified in the partnership plan include looking at communities taking more ownership of the land around them to develop housing.
Mr Miles added: “But, yes, it is extremely challenging. Developers will always want to make as much profit as possible.
“The good news is that in some places we know that developers are able to increase their affordable housing proportion of a development towards 50 per cent at times in some of the places whilst still being able to cover their basic profit margin - they are not making a lot of money but still covering that.”