Councillors have made calls for more affordable housing in rural Perth and Kinross.
The renewed calls came at a recent planning meeting when a 55-home development in Alyth was approved without affordable housing because it was in a rural location.
Instead the developer was asked to pay commuted sum contributions for affordable housing to be built elsewhere in that council ward.
PKC’s affordable housing policy requires that 25 per cent of stock in a development be affordable housing.
But this requirement was removed due to the rural nature of the development - much to the dismay of two Perth and Kinross councillors.
Rather than provide affordable housing, the developer was asked to pay £11,500 per affordable unit - £206,250 (13.75 x £11,500).
Kinross-shire councillors Richard Watters and Michael Barnacle both questioned the move.
Cllr Barnacle said: “We have identified - both in our own ward and obviously in this situation here - that there are a number of cases where affordable housing provision is not being made on site and is being dealt with by commuted sum.”
He asked for PKC ’s service manager Kristian Smith to take account of their concern they should be able to address this through the committee if the policy allows them to do so.
Mr Smith told councillors the advice they took on the most appropriate way to move forward in terms of provision of affordable housing came from various factors.
He said each site was based on its own merits.
After the meeting Cllr Watters told the Perthshire Advertiser he was planning to write to the planning and development management committee convener Roz McCall for a better explanation of the reasoning.
He said: “I continually see applications coming forward where there are meant to be 25 per cent affordable houses but the decision seems to be that if it’s in a rural location they pay the commuted sum.
“It does create an issue elsewhere. Rural locations need affordable houses too.”
This week a PKC spokesperson told the Perthshire Advertiser around 40 per cent of affordable housing in Perth and Kinross was being developed in rural areas.
The spokesperson said: “Perth and Kinross Council’s Affordable Housing Supplementary Guidance outlines a range of options available to meet affordable housing requirements on sites of five houses or more. It is for the council to decide, in consultation with the developer, which option is preferred. Generally, on site provision of new affordable homes is preferred on developments of over 20 houses.
“However, in some cases, a commuted sums payment that can be invested in developments elsewhere in the same area where demand for new affordable homes is higher is preferred.
“In this case, where the development is one mile outside Alyth and has poor connectivity to the town, the need for new affordable homes has been addressed via recent investment within the town. There are plans to build new affordable homes in the current five year Strategic Housing Investment Plan programme in a more suitable location to meet the needs of tenants of affordable homes.”
The spokesperson said since 2017 almost £500,000 from affordable housing commuted sums contributions had been “recycled” into new affordable homes in Strathmore and the Glens.
And in 2020 £160,00.00 was made available in Highland Perthshire to fund new affordable homes.
The spokesperson said decisions were based on the housing need and added: “In many instances, households requiring affordable housing prefer to be in areas with better access to shops and services. Higher levels of housing need are generally found within rural settlements with a primary school and other services close at hand.”
