Our Plan for Affordable homes

Our Plan: an overview

Our Vision is to provide much-needed homes for people on a low-middle income who live, work and have family connections in Stoke Gabriel. We aim to have a small number of homes built in the village: something up to 20 as identified in the village Housing Needs Survey (2023).

Sensitive to our beautiful environment

The affordable homes would be in keeping with the character of the village as set out in the new Neighbourhood Plan. They would be built with sensitivity to our environment and using methods that create energy-efficient homes. This is important as once we have built 'affordable homes' they must also be affordable to live in, for example with good insulation and energy-efficient design.

Homes with community space

We hope any development would also include a community allotment, orchard and perhaps even a community green, where locals can come together, children can play and where we can all meet and enjoy ourselves!

Funding and expertise

We are very grateful for the support South Hams District Council is providing. We have been working with them for several years; should suitable land be found they will provide expertise to get us to the point of issuing a tender to go out to developers. This includes planning advice, surveying, contracting and a whole host of other essential knowledge. They are also likely to fund this stage of development, with a small contribution from SGCLT to show we are genuinely keen to make affordable housing happen.

Who owns the houses?

To ensure everyone who qualifies for a dwelling can do so in the way that works best for them, we plan on offering houses via Rent to Buy, Shared Ownership and social/intermediate rent. 

Land

This is the sticking point. We have been searching for suitable land since the CLT was formed in 2017, and we're still looking today.

If you have land that might work, the key thing is that land that wouldn't get planning permission for open-market housing might get permission for an affordable housing-led development. It therefore doesn't command open-market prices, but has a value for affordable housing.

There are government rates set for affordable housing development land, and to qualify for Homes England funding to build houses we would need to honour those rates. We haven't quoted them here because they can change and we don't want to give out-of-date information.

If you own land in the village and want to find out how you can help the SGCLT, please contact Anna Trant on anna@sgclt.org.uk