More affordable homes will be required in new housing developments under new Wokingham Borough Council rules.
Last week, council members approved the Local Plan, a document that sets out how thousands of homes will be delivered across the borough by 2040.
As part of this, the authority will raise its current minimum requirement of cheaper homes on major developments at 35 per cent, to 40 per cent.
But local assessments of housing needs show that nearly half of new housing ought to be at a lower cost.
Affordable housing includes homes below average market prices, shared ownership schemes and socially rented housing.
According to government rules, they must be 20 per cent below the average market value.
The Office for National Statistics says that an average price for a home in Wokingham in July 2024 was £483,000, while the average price to rent is £1,346.
Average rent prices across the Wokingham Borough have risen by 12 per cent in the past year alone.
The Leader of the Council Stephen Conway told the News: “After carrying out detailed viability work to demonstrate that we can reasonably ask for a higher percentage and developers can still make profit, we are now going to be requiring 40 per cent on new major housing schemes.”
For smaller scale developments, more affordable housing will also be secured under the local plan.
National policy currently requires a contribution of affordable homes on developments of ten houses or more – Wokingham will require this for those with five houses and above.
But councillor Conway said that this ‘will not always produce two new affordable homes on a site of five’, and in some cases it would be better to have a different sum.
The provision of affordable homes was supported by the leader of the Labour group in Wokingham Borough Council, Rachel Burgess.
Councillor Burgess said during a debate on the local plan: “We need to be able to deliver quality, affordable and social housing.”
The labour leader said it was ‘unacceptable’ that 1,300 families in Wokingham were on a housing waiting list, as well as ‘thousands more stuck at home with their parents, priced out of the housing market,’ and ‘thousands more trapped in evermore expensive private rental accommodation’.
However, the new provisions are not set in stone. Although given the green light by councillors, it still awaits a decision from a government-appointed planning inspector.
