Woking adopted their Core Strategy back in October 2012, the document is said to “provide the certainty that local residents, businesses and developers need about the future direction of growth in the area”.
Policy CS12 of the Core Strategy sets out the expectations regarding affordable housing in the Borough, this can be seen below:
As seen above, there are different requirements based on the number of dwellings proposed in a development and what type of land is being built on.
For developments on previously developed (brownfield) land, up to 40% of new homes will be sought as affordable housing:
- 15+ dwellings or over 0.5 ha = 40% on-site AH.
- 10-14 dwellings = 30% on-site AH.
- 5-9 dwellings = 20% on-site AH or an equivalent financial contribution.
- >5 dwellings = financial contribution equivalent to 10%.
For developments on greenfield land or land in public ownership, the requirements are for 50% of new dwellings be affordable housing – regardless of the proposed number of units.
Woking Borough Council would prefer all affordable housing contributions to be provided on-site; however, they are prepared to negotiate a % of homes to be delivered off-site if it means a better distribution of affordable houses across the Borough.
Woking Council’s policy is now a decade out of date, therefore we advise that a site-specific viability assessment is completed on all developments of 2 or more dwellings in Woking.
Previous Work in Woking
Proposed Development = Demolition of existing building and the erection of 4 x detached houses. A total of 1,480m2 of residential accommodation.
Policy Implications/Requirements = Sites over 0.5 hectares should provide 40% of the new units as affordable.
Expectation on Affordable Housing = 40% of the 3 new units as affordable = 1.2 AH.
Result = No on-site affordable housing.
