Affordable Housing Supplementary Planning Document (SPD)

Our Affordable Housing SPD contains advice to be addressed in all proposals for new residential use. The Council continues to apply local policies contained within its development plan.

Latest update

March 2024

We have updated 2023/24 Social Rent weekly rents in line with government guidance on annual rent increases for 2024-2025. More information is available on the government website of how the rent increases are calculated. The priority for us continues to be the provision of Social Rented housing, which remains in line with the GLA’s priorities and the 2019 Tenancy Strategy. The updated rent levels will be used by us in the commuted sum calculation spreadsheet (Annex A of the SPD) for planning applications validated on or after 1 April 2024.

April 2023

The GLA is no longer publishing London Affordable Rent levels as of March 2023, as set out in the Homes for Londoners: Affordable Homes Programme 2021-2026 guidance. The guidance states the priorities for the GLA and includes three affordable housing tenures that will be applicable for funding, including: Social Rent, London Living Rent and Shared Ownership.

The Council have therefore moved to social rent levels in line with the GLA’s priorities and the 2019 Tenancy Strategy. This also reflects the Council’s priority for social rent agreed at the Adult Social Services, Health and Housing Committee on 7 June 2022. The updated rent levels will be used by the Council in the commuted sum calculation spreadsheet (Annex A of the SPD) for planning applications validated on or after 1 April 2023.

June 2022

The Council consulted on the draft Affordable Housing SPD until 1 August 2022. This is an update to the existing SPD (2014) to reflect new or updated requirements in the Local Plan and also guidance published by National Government, the Greater London Authority (GLA) and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Once adopted, the SPD will supersede the 2014 version and become a material consideration when assessing any such future planning application that comes forward. It is now expected this will be taken forward to reflect the new Local Plan, once that reaches an advanced stage.

The Draft Supplementary Planning Documents page contains all the documents relating to the draft Affordable Housing SPD and sets out the details of the consultation.

March 2022

The benchmark rents for 2022/2023 have been added to the website.

March 2021

The benchmark rents for 2021/22 have been added to the website.

July 2020

The details of the Tenancy Strategy 2013 have now been removed from this webpage, and the benchmark rents for 2020/21 have been added to the website.

July 2019

The Council has adopted a new Richmond Tenancy Strategy 2019 which sets out guidance on affordable rents, which are now to comply with the London Affordable Rent levels set by the GLA annually. This updates the benchmark rents set out in the Tenancy Strategy 2013. The updated rent levels will be used by the Council in the commuted sum calculation spreadsheet (Annex A of the SPD) for planning applications validated on or after Tuesday 1 October 2019.

July 2018

The revised NPPF (July 2018) continues the Government’s policy that provision of affordable housing should not be sought from small sites, however, also acknowledges the Framework is not criteria against which every decision should be judged and local circumstances should be taken into account (paragraph 9). 

As set out in the Council’s evidence to the recent Examination in Public on the Local Plan Review, local circumstances can justify lower thresholds as an exception to national policy.  The Inspector was mindful of the weight to be afforded to national policy, however, agreed that the evidenced local circumstances of the Borough exceptionally warrants the policy and subsequently the policy was found sound (refer to paragraphs 38 and 39 in the Inspector’s Report (pdf, 499 KB)). The Council will therefore continue to seek affordable housing contributions from all sites in accordance with adopted Local Plan Policy LP 36.

March 2017

The Council raised consideration of affordable housing contributions from small sites in appeal decisions with the Planning Inspectorate. The correspondence is available:

• Council's letter(pdf, 80KB) (December 2016)
• Planning Inspectorate's letter(pdf, 95KB) (March 2017)

January 2017

The Publication Local Plan was adopted for development management purposes at the Cabinet Meeting of 13 December 2016. The Publication page contains the Publication Local Plan and sets out all the details of the Publication consultation from 4 January and 15 February 2017.

June 2016

Following a report to the Council’s Cabinet on 23 June 2016 (item 10 on the Local Plan Pre-Publication Version), the adoption and use of the Pre-Publication Local Plan Affordable Housing policy LP 36 has been agreed for determining planning applications and development management purposes.

The policy, set out in Appendix 1 to the Cabinet Report, continues to seek affordable housing contributions from all sites, based on the Council’s local circumstances as set out in the Cabinet report (see paragraphs 3.15 to 3.19). The local evidence referred to is available from the Council’s research and monitoring webpages.

The extract of the Pre-Publication Local Plan Affordable Housing policy LP 36(pdf, 381KB) is from the Pre-Publication Local Plan which was subject to consultation from 8 July to 19 August 2016.

SPD documents

The Council consulted from 27 April to 8 June 2012 on the draft Affordable Housing Supplementary Planning Document (SPD). This is an update of the 2003 SPG, to reflect changes in the policy context and the funding of affordable housing. The advice is to be addressed in all proposals for new development or changes of use for wholly residential and mixed use sites incorporating residential use.

The current Affordable Housing SPD was adopted on 6 March 2014. Read our adoption statement(pdf, 23KB).

• Affordable Housing SPD(pdf, 721KB)
• Affordable Housing Commuted Sum Calculation Guidance Notes (part of Annex A)(pdf, 39KB)
• Affordable Housing Commuted Sum Calculation Pro-forma – blank (part of Annex A) (MS Excel, 66KB)
• Viability Appraisal Data Sources Annex B(pdf, 12KB)
• Marketing Pro-forma for Employment Land) Annex C(pdf, 204KB) (this form can be saved or printed to accompany planning applications)
• Affordable Housing Case Studies Annex D(pdf, 36KB)
• Step by Step Guide to the Affordable Housing Commuted Sum Calculator Annex E(pdf, 59KB)

Further information and guidance to assist with the SPD

Further information and guidance will be added to help you understand and apply the Affordable Housing SPD.

An updated Tenancy Strategy (pdf, 255 KB) was adopted in 2019 which considered London Affordable Rent levels (as set by the GLA) as benchmark rents. The GLA has since stopped publishing London Affordable Rent levels and removed London Affordable Rented dwellings as a grant funded tenure, meaning the Council have updated rent levels in line with updated Social Rents to align with priorities set out by the GLA and the Council.

These can be used in the commuted sum calculation spreadsheet (Annex A of the SPD) to assess a contribution towards off-site affordable housing:

Social rent - weekly rent benchmarks 2024/25

Bed size	Amount
Bedsit and one bedrooms	£127.04
Two bedrooms	£158.08
Three bedrooms	£175.68
Four bedrooms	£184.91

Note that to explore on site provision and/or values for full viability modelling this should be informed by discussions with the Council’s Housing Development Manager, and Registered Providers to take account of full guidance as outlined within the SPD and all of the Council’s relevant housing strategies and guidance, including the Intermediate Housing Policy Statement.

A London Borough Development Viability Protocol (consultation 22 February to 20 March 2016) draws on best practice across London to set out overarching principles for considering development viability and may provide useful additional guidance for developers (note it does not alter existing policies).

Unilateral Undertaking for Planning Obligations

The Council’s guidance on submitting a draft Unilateral Undertaking also includes a template for an affordable housing contribution.

Frequently asked questions

A series of frequently asked questions(pdf, 112 KB) have been put together, to answer some of the queries raised on the guidance.

In relation to affordable housing definitions we have put together a number of frequently asked questions. This is to help users understand the differences between the different types of affordable housing terms.