Housing facts and figures 2004/2005 to 2021

Permissions and delivery of affordable homes

Our affordable housing policy seeks to ensure all developments of ten residential units or more (major developments) deliver a minimum of 35% of the housing as affordable, preferably on-site. This is calculated by habitable rooms in order to maximise the proportion of affordable housing.

The source monitoring system does not record residential units in terms of their habitable rooms, making direct comparisons against our 35% policy requirement difficult. Similarly, for some sites, on-site affordable housing would not have been possible, and the off-site delivery or equivalent in-lieu payments invested in affordable housing delivery will not necessarily be reflected in the figures as shown below.

For the reasons above, the figures shown in this section should not be used as a direct indicator of the implementation of our minimum 35% affordable housing policy-requirement. However, it provides a useful overview of the proportion of homes that are delivered as affordable homes on schemes of ten units or more on a unit-by-unit basis.

While minor developments are currently not required to provide affordable housing, some of them consisted of council housing schemes that contributed to affordable home delivery. Therefore, some financial years would see the figures of overall affordable housing, which are used to monitor the affordable housing target, higher than the total amount approved or delivered on major developments.

3.1 Gross approved affordable homes

It's important to look at the affordable housing proportion in gross approval terms because the minimum 35% affordable housing policy is calculated on the gross delivery of new homes on a site. Over the past 15 years (to 2019), a total of 15,237 new affordable homes were approved, equating to 1,016 per year (Table 4). The affordable housing provision overall equated to 36% of major developments (with 10 or more units), showing consistency with the 35% policy target in Core Strategy (2011).

Table 3 - Percentage of approved gross affordable homes against total homes approved on major developments

^{Source: Summary of housing approvals 2004 to 2019 - Sheet 1: overall by tenure and Sheet 3: major development}

As Table 5 demonstrates, the majority of affordable housing approved were social rent at almost 60%, totalling 9,050 units (603 annually). During the period, 553 affordable rent units were approved in total, with 53 London living rent and 161 discounted market rent permitted in 2018/2019. 

Table 4 - Gross approved affordable homes by tenure

^{Source: Summary of housing approvals 2004 to 2019 - Sheet 1: overall by tenure}

3.2 Net approved affordable homes

Taking into account the existing units demolished on the new developments, there have been 9,924 additional new affordable homes approved through the planning system (662 units per year) (Table 5). This contributed to almost one-third of the additional housing permitted over the period. Table 6 indicates 40% of the affordable housing was social rent, with the rest being intermediate.

Table 5 - Percentage of net affordable homes against total homes approved on major developments

^{Source: Summary of housing approvals 2004 to 2019 - Sheet 1: overall by tenure and Sheet 3: major development}

Table 6 - Net approved affordable homes by tenure

^{Source: Summary of housing approvals 2004 to 2019 - Sheet 1: overall by tenure}

3.3  Gross completed affordable homes

Between 2004 and 2020, 9,770 affordable homes were delivered, with an annual average of 611 units. The affordable housing delivery was an equivalent of 42% total new homes generated from major developments (Table 7).

Table 7 - Proportion of gross affordable homes against total homes delivered on major developments

^{Source: Summary of housing completions 2004 to 2019: Sheet 1: overall by tenure; Sheet 3: major development}

Over the period, over 5,597 new social rented units were built, representing approximately 60% of the new affordable homes built. 3,706 intermediate homes and 467 affordable rent homes were completed (Table 8).

Table 8 - Gross completed affordable homes by tenure

^{Source: Summary of housing completions 2004 – 2019: Sheet 1: overall by tenure}

3.4 Net completed affordable homes

Over the same reporting period, 6,985 net affordable homes were built, meaning new additional 437 affordable homes were provided annually. The number also demonstrates that the total additional affordable homes equated to one-third of all delivered on major developments (Table 9).

Table 9 - Proportion of net affordable homes against total homes delivered on major developments

^{Source: Summary of housing completions 2004 – 2019: Sheet 1: overall by tenure; Sheet 3: major development}

Across the 16-year reporting period, 40% of the 6,985 new additional affordable homes built were social rented at 2,820 units (Table 10). It is important to look at the affordable housing delivery across a longer rather than shorter timeframe due to the way the source monitoring system records demolitions and the long-term nature of large regeneration schemes.

According to LDD, demolished housing units are recorded only when the redevelopment on the same sites complete in their entirety (including any non-residential elements on the same site). In the earlier financial years, only newly homes completed would be counted, leading to the lag time in recording the demolished units. Therefore, years 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 that saw several major regeneration schemes completed (see below) appeared to result in a loss of 121 and 165 units.

Completed regeneration schemes in 2014/2015 and 2015/2016:

• Trafalgar Place, SE17 (part of the former Heygate Estate regeneration programme)
• Site C5 of Bermondsey Spa regeneration, SE1
• Silwood Estate regeneration, SE16
• Camberwell Fields (part of the former Elmington Estate)

To ensure regeneration works for all, the council’s estate regeneration schemes seek to provide more affordable homes across a wider area to create mixed communities with high quality new affordable and market homes that are “tenure blind.” This approach has been successful through the “early rehousing sites” for tenants of the former Heygate Estate, which has seen a total of over 530 affordable homes completed in the local area, including close to 420 for social rent and 117 as intermediate units. The final scheme, on Stead Street, SE17, has seen 84 social rent homes completed during 2016/17.

Table 10 - Net completed affordable homes by tenure

^{Source: Summary of housing completions 2004 to 2019: Sheet 1: overall by tenure}

Page last updated: 22 February 2022