Dwellings granted planning permission in six months for social rent
Case reference FOI2025/00572
Received 17 March 2025
Published 14 April 2025
Request
1. The total number of dwellings in developments that were granted planning permission by the council between 5 July 2024 and 4 January 2025 - and how many of these dwellings are currently designated as being for social rent*? (For the avoidance of doubt, please count individual units within multi-home developments as separate dwellings - e.g. count a block of 20 flats as 20 dwellings, etc.) * To be clear, we are asking for data specifically on dwellings that will be let at social rent, and do not want statistics on umbrella categories such as "affordable". This is the case for every question in this FOI request that asks about social rent dwellings.
1a. If possible, please provide a breakdown of this data for each month, detailing the total number of dwellings given planning permission and how many of these are for social rent.
The application including 29 designated for social rent was approved in June 2024.
1b. If possible, of the dwellings currently designated as being for social rent, please provide a breakdown of how many are one-bed, two-bed, three-bed, have more than three bedrooms or have an unspecified number of bedrooms.
2. What is your policy on the proportion of units in each new development in your area that should be for social rent, and has this changed since 5 July 2024?
Response
1. The total number of dwellings in developments that were granted planning permission by the council between 5 July 2024 and 4 January 2025 - and how many of these dwellings are currently designated as being for social rent*? (For the avoidance of doubt, please count individual units within multi-home developments as separate dwellings - e.g. count a block of 20 flats as 20 dwellings, etc.) * To be clear, we are asking for data specifically on dwellings that will be let at social rent, and do not want statistics on umbrella categories such as "affordable". This is the case for every question in this FOI request that asks about social rent dwellings.
A: The number of dwellings that were granted planning permission is available via the planning search facility on our website, where the date range can be entered as per the parameters of your request. Please see link below:
Planning Search – Herefordshire Council
As such we consider this information to be exempt under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 because it is reasonably accessible to you via other means. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.
Regarding how many of these dwellings are currently designated as being for social rent, the team have checked, and confirmed that there has been 1 planning application including social rent housing within this time period, application 201441 which includes 29 residences for social rent.
1a. If possible, please provide a breakdown of this data for each month, detailing the total number of dwellings given planning permission and how many of these are for social rent.
A: As advised above, the total number of dwellings given planning permission can be found via our Planning Search facility on our website via the above link.
The application including 29 designated for social rent was approved in June 2024.
1b. If possible, of the dwellings currently designated as being for social rent, please provide a breakdown of how many are one-bed, two-bed, three-bed, have more than three bedrooms or have an unspecified number of bedrooms.
A: The number of bedrooms is not held.
2. What is your policy on the proportion of units in each new development in your area that should be for social rent, and has this changed since 5 July 2024? A: Each Housing Market Area has its own percentage need for rented accommodation so it can vary across Herefordshire. The council will always seek social rent on planning gain sites but on Homes England fully funded schemes it is usually affordable rent that is provided. With the recent changes to the National Planning Policy Framework in December 24 and Homes England support for housing providers to obtain grant funding on social rent, this may impact the delivery of the social rented accommodation on grant funded schemes and should increase the delivery of social rent.
Documents
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