Monitoring affordable housing delivery

Why do we need to monitor affordable housing?       

We started asking for affordable housing as part of developments over 15 homes at 25% in 2002. This policy has increased to 35% with requirements for different types of affordable housing such as social rented, affordable rent, and shared ownership since 2004. This is set out in our affordable housing policy timeline. 

We monitor affordable housing to make sure it's built and managed as agreed between developers, Registered Providers (also known as housing associations) and the council. When planning permission is given for a large development, the developer must sign a legal document called a Section 106 agreement. This agreement lists the number and type of affordable homes that the developer legally needs to provide on the site of the development. If the developer does not follow the Section 106 agreement, then the council will take enforcement action against them.

We also monitor affordable housing so that we can report accurate and up to date information, and so that we can track whether we're meeting our affordable housing targets.

Who manages affordable housing?

Most affordable housing is managed by Registered Providers. These organisations are run independently from councils. All other affordable housing in Southwark is managed by the council.

Sometimes the developer for a large housing development will be a Registered Provider or the council. Other times, the developer will be independent and will pass on the management of the affordable homes after the homes are built. Affordable housing can only be managed by a housing association or by the council.

What is affordable housing?

As there are so many different types of affordable housing, we no longer use the general term affordable housing. Instead, we use a specific term for each type.

The image below provides a guide on the types of homes that we consider to be affordable in Southwark. You can also download this guide (download) ^{(PDF, 58kb)}.

How much affordable housing is in Southwark?

Affordable housing can be provided through planning permission, or by Registered Providers building affordable homes or buying homes and managing them as affordable homes. To find out how many affordable homes are in the borough (excluding the council’s own stock), we carry out annual surveys of Registered Providers who manage affordable housing in Southwark.

When we conduct survey, we ask the Registered Providers for the following information about the homes that they manage:

• the number of social rented homes 
• the number of intermediate homes
• the number of affordable homes, where the section 106 agreement does not specify whether it's social rented or a different type
• the number of bedrooms in the homes 
• the number of accessible homes
• the rental levels of the affordable homes
• the diversity of the people living in the affordable homes

We did our first survey of Registered Providers in 2016. We then started doing annual surveys from March 2021. The last survey happened in March 2022.

During the March 2021 survey:

• we contacted 44 Registered Providers
• we collected information for 21,576 affordable homes

We have created an online report which includes all the data we collected from the Registered Providers during this survey. This report is interactive which means you can choose to view the data in different ways including on a map, and in tables.

Access the interactive March 2021 Registered Provider survey results

A summary of the data we collected during the March 2021 survey is also shown in the image below.

How do we monitor affordable housing?

When affordable housing is required in a planning application legal agreement, we make sure that the affordable housing is still there as agreed.

In 2016, there was an Ombudsman decision that required Southwark to report on whether the different types of affordable homes listed in the legal agreement are still being provided. The Ombudsman decision stated: 'The council failed to have in place a procedure for supervising compliance with Section 106 Agreements, but it recognised that failing and has remedied it by agreeing to an annual audit'.

The council has committed to an annual audit of affordable housing in the borough. This purpose of the audit makes sure the affordable homes are as agreed in the legal agreement. Where affordable homes are not being provided as agreed in the legal agreement, the council takes enforcement action. 

We carried out an audit of legal agreements which required affordable housing in 2017. Download the results of the 2017 audit ^{(xlsx, 97kb)}. We also completed audits in March 2021 and March 2022. 

March 2022 audit 

We've reviewed all legal agreements for planning applications requiring affordable housing since the policy was introduced in 2002. This review is of all completed schemes registered as complete in March 2021. We reviewed 188 developments.

Our interactive report shows the location of the 188 developments and:

• the different types of housing that were set out in the legal agreement
• the different types of housing that are in the completed development
• whether the scheme went to planning committee
• traffic light system to identify any issues (green means there's no issue, and red means there's an issue to be investigated)

Access the 2022 audit interactive report

Please press on the diagrams and maps in the report for more information.

Twenty-four additional developments provided a financial payment as well as or instead of providing affordable homes on site. Where they are only providing a payment in lieu, these have been audited separately. View the Committee Report (July 2020) to release the funds.

We have used a traffic light system to rate each scheme and identify any issues. This assessment is based on the information provided by the Registered Provider and our analysis at this stage, this will be updated as the cases are investigated.

What are the next steps following the audit?

Enforcement action

Our enforcement team has opened 41 investigations as a result of this audit. 16 of those investigations remain open and 25 have been closed. The remaining cases largely relate to the type of rent being charged (affordable rather than social rented). Two cases relate to under provision of housing.

The cases that are still under investigation relate to 36 homes.

Annual audit

Our next audit will be in March 2023. We will survey all Registered Providers and check the 188 developments from the March 2022 audit again, in addition to checking any other developments registered as complete in March 2022.

This summer we will be checking a 10% sample of developments to see whether the rents for the social rented homes are being charged at social rented rates. 

Legal agreement templates

To ensure the efficient and effective monitoring of affordable homes, we've updated the templates for legal agreements to require developers to submit details on each affordable home once they've been completed.

The developer is also required to submit details of any change in the type of affordable home for example if a home changes from social rented to another type of housing or the shared ownership home is now fully owned by the person who originally purchased the home and has increased their share of ownership to 100%.

The legal agreement template sets out a requirement for developers to complete an affordable housing survey to provide detailed information to the council.

These new processes will ensure the different types of affordable homes within the borough can be more efficiently monitored.

Digital monitoring tools

We are continuing work on back office digital monitoring tools to record and provide information on affordable housing delivery and monitoring without considerable manual tasks.

Local Government Ombudsman Investigation

A Local Government Ombudsman investigation into affordable housing monitoring concluded in December 2022. Its purpose was to see if the council had set up an annual audit of monitoring affordable homes agreed in Section 106 legal agreements with planning application, and that the secured affordable homes continued to be let at target rent. The Ombudsman found in the council’s favour and the decision can be viewed here (external website).

A timeline of how much of each development should be affordable housing

Southwark introduced a requirement for affordable housing in 2002, which has since been increasing. Developments have been required to deliver different amounts of affordable housing depending on the policy at the time of legal agreement. The table below shows a timeline of the affordable housing policy in the borough.

Page last updated: 05 April 2023