The Council works in an enabling capacity with a number of social housing providers to increase the supply of affordable housing.
Craven District Council transferred all of its housing stock to Craven Housing on 31st March 2003 and is no longer a direct provider of affordable housing.
This is housing provided at below market costs for local people who are unable to afford market priced accommodation to either rent or buy. Affordable housing is therefore much cheaper than market housing.
In Craven this will usually be social rented housing or low cost home ownership.
The Council works with registered social housing providers, know as Registered Providers (RPs) and the Homes and Communities Agency (the Government's funding agency) to identify and fund affordable housing. We also work with private developers and use the planning process to provide for a percentage of affordable housing as part of larger housing developments. Currently, we seek to achieve 40% affordable housing on private developments of 15 or more homes. We have also contributed Council owned land to provide additional affordable homes.
We carry out district-wide affordable housing need surveys on a regular basis to ascertain the numbers of people in need of affordable homes in all parts of the Craven District. We also closely monitor how many people are registered with North Yorkshire HomeChoice for social housing in Craven. This information is used as a basis to plan how many additional homes are needed, where they are needed and what type of homes they should be. More information on Housing Need can be found below.
Housing Need
All local authorities are required by statute to carry out regular assessments of housing need within their areas. Surveys are carried out to provide more detail about people's housing needs and aspirations and help shape the development of new homes - in particular low-cost affordable housing - in years to come. Responses to such surveys help influence housing and planning policies, and also ensure that investment in affordable housing matches local needs as closely as possible.
Rural Housing
Working on behalf of the North Yorkshire Strategic Housing Board, eight local authorities across North Yorkshire have established a network of enablers who are working to identify the needs of rural communities. The North Yorkshire Rural Housing Enablers' network, launched in 2008, helps rural communities find solutions for the increasing problem of shortages in affordable housing.
Low cost home ownership
General information on the low cost home ownership schemes available currently: Please note, not all of these options may be available in Craven. Please see the links to the right for websites giving comprehensive information on the schemes in existence at present.
Renting in the Social Sector
Social rented housing is rented housing owned and managed by local authorities and housing associations, for which guideline target rents are determined through the national rent regime.
Right to buy
The Right to Buy scheme helps social housing tenants in England and Wales to buy their own homes.
Page last updated: 29 October 2012
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