Forest Heath's Housing Needs

We try to target the provision of affordable housing to meet the district's housing need. We have a statutory duty to monitor the level of housing need in the district.

In 2005 we undertook a district wide Housing Needs Survey and we have since worked in partnership with the Cambridge sub-region and Cambridge County Council Research Team for up to date housing information. The main conclusions are as follows:

• An annual total of 220 affordable dwellings of all types are required to meet housing need across the district
• The main shortfall in property type is for two and three bed properties, particularly social rented. There is also a noticeable shortfall of four bed houses in the social rented sector.
• The biggest concentration of need for properties is in the main towns of Newmarket, Mildenhall and Brandon.  However, as Forest Heath is particularly rural there has been an increasing need for more properties in village locations.

In 2009/10, we helped enable 324 units of affordable housing to come forward.

Rural Exception Sites

Our Local Development Framework makes provision for the development of sites for affordable housing outside the settlement boundary of villages in the district as exceptions to planning policy.

This is dependent on:

• Parish council support
• Proven local housing need which is unable to be met any other way 
• No suitable site for development existing within the settlement boundary
• The site being well related to the settlement boundary 
• The location of the site being considered sustainable.

The development must be available for the provision of affordable housing 'in perpetuity' (for local residents only) which restricts the 'Right to Acquire' for tenants.