At Cabinet on 26 November 2020 the decision was taken on how the council will progress the delivery of net zero carbon affordable housing across the county over the coming years.

http://councillors.herefordshire.gov.uk/ieDecisionDetails.aspx?ID=7360

Cabinet also approved Phase 2 of this strategic work to develop a pipeline of sites suitable for development as affordable housing to support discussions with key partners including Homes England.

This paper seeks agreement to proceed with the outline feasibility of an initial number of selected council owned sites and any suitable sites in third party ownership identified across the county in order to progress the pipeline of suitable sites. The aim is to identify sites and prioritise using a market needs analysis

That:

(a)       Cabinet agrees to proceed with the outline feasibility work for net zero carbon affordable housing at the initial selected council owned sites and any other suitable sites in third party ownership that may be available across the county.  The sites will be prioritised to meet the demands based on market needs analysis

1.         The council could choose not to intervene in the provision of affordable housing in the County and allow the current arrangement of Registered Providers (RPs) and house builders to meet provision. However, the type and scale of development produced via RPs and private house builders in recent times has not kept pace with demand for affordable housing seen as one of the key components of the County’s wider economic ambitions.

2.         The council could choose not to proceed with the feasibility of selected council owned sites and solely explore the potential to work in partnership with third party developers and or the purchase of open market sites which already have full planning permission or are under construction in order to facilitate affordable housing ownership

3.         The council could choose not to proceed with the feasibility of selected council owned sites and solely focus on identifying open market sites from across the county to purchase in order to facilitate affordable housing development.