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An introduction to the District Council's work to provide additional affordable housing. Learn more about our achievements, our plans and strategies, the partners we work with and find case studies for examples of completed schemes.
Good quality affordable homes improve people's health and wellbeing. Our Annual Review provides an over-view of our performance in providing new affordable homes during the previous financial year (1 April – 31 March) and over the longer term. This also includes a commentary on key issues affecting, or likely to affect, the delivery of new homes in the District.
Our strategic aims are set out in the Council Plan 2023-27 and Housing Strategy 2021-26. One of the Council Plan's key areas of focus is delivering ‘Affordable, Well Built and Maintained Homes'. Aim 1 of the Housing Strategy is 'To support communities and build sustainable affordable homes'.
Policies relating to the overall level, distribution and type of new housing are laid out in our Core Strategy and other planning policy documents. For general information about housing supply and related matters please refer to the Authority Monitoring Reports.
To deliver the new affordable homes we need, we work with:
Local communities
Local communities have a long track record of undertaking housing needs surveys, preparing parish plans or neighbourhood plans and supporting community-led ('Local Needs') housing schemes to address identified local needs. Further advice may be found on our dedicated webpage.
Registered Providers
These include non-profit housing associations and other for-profit providers. They are responsible for building and then letting or selling new affordable homes to local people. The following are the most active in developing new homes for local people in our district and regarded as development partners:
We maintain a list of development contacts at partner Registered Providers. This list is updated from time-to-time. It is not an exhaustive list of all Registered Providers operating within our district.
Other Registered Providers considering developing within our district are invited to contact the Housing Policy and Development Team to discuss this possibility: housing.policy@stratford-dc.gov.uk.
Homes England
Homes England is a public body whose role includes supporting the development of new affordable homes in England. It does this through awarding grant funding to Registered Providers (RPs), where needed, under a range of programmes. It also performs a range of other functions such as land assembly.
The Regulator of Social Housing
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) is responsible for the regulation of Registered Providers (RPs) of social housing in England. It promotes a viable, efficient, and well-governed social housing sector able to deliver and maintain homes of appropriate quality that meet a range of needs. Most new affordable housing developed in our area will be subject to its regulatory regime, which ensures RPs meet defined economic and consumer standards.
The Rural Housing Enabler
The District Council funds Warwickshire Rural Community Council (WRCC) to provide the services of a full-time Rural Housing Enabler as an independent resource for all local communities within Stratford-on-Avon District. For further information and contact details see ‘Local needs/community led schemes' section below.
Housing developers
Planning policies generally require the provision of affordable housing as part of market-led housing schemes. This is an important dimension of ensuring sustainable development. Early identification and collaboration with potential partner housing associations (Registered Providers) is vital. In addition, more information and advice on specific issues, and some case studies of recent schemes, are provided below.
Warwickshire County Council
The County Council is the adult social care authority for our district and is interested in ensuring that the current and future care needs of local residents are considered when developing new housing.
Whilst most new affordable homes will continue to be provided to meet general needs, consideration should be given to purpose built specialised housing schemes such as Extra Care Housing to enable older people and people with disabilities to live independently in their own homes and Supported Housing for other groups of people.
Prospective developers of affordable housing must therefore contact the County Council and the Housing Policy & Development Team (contact: housing.policy@stratford-dc.gov.uk) to discuss current needs within the district and whether it would be appropriate to include the above accommodation types as part of an overall affordable housing offer.
The District Council publishes case studies of representative examples of recently completed affordable housing schemes within its area. The benefits of doing so include: raising awareness amongst local communities of the benefits of an improved supply of new affordable homes; identifying examples of good practice in their design and development, and; informing the review and development of strategies and policies. Current case studies are available to view/download below. All case studies are subject to periodic updating and may be added to from time-to-time.
Further information about our work can be found via the links below:
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