Bid for more homes to be affordable

At least one home in every four built on developments in and around Oswestry should be affordable, planners have said.

Oswestry borough councillors are being recommended to bring in new planning guidelines which state developments with four or more homes should include 25 per cent affordable housing.

But planners have stepped back from insisting on even more affordable housing, after concerns that it could jeopardise future house building.

Planning officers had originally said that every development, however small, should have 25 per cent affordability and that larger sites should have up to half of the homes being affordable.

However, tomorrow's full council meeting is being asked to agree a new table which ranges from 25 per cent for four to eight homes to 40 per cent for estates of 19 or more homes.

Planning officer David Parker says in his report that evidence from the council's housing needs assessment revealed that the problem of affordability within the borough had significantly worsened.

But, he said, consultation had brought concerns that increased affordable housing requirements would jeopardise future development, particularly on small sites.