Resources for community housing projects

Yes, you will be able to correspond directly with an officer in the housing delivery team and receive both general and specific advice at every stage. If you have a general enquiry about the WDHO please contact our team.

When contacting us via email, please use your GNR reference that you received for each funding application. This helps your enquiry get to the right person.

However, when filling out forms or providing information regarding your community group's registration for the West Devon Housing Offer, please use your WDHO reference number, which is issued to your group upon registration approval.

Yes – funding will be granted on a first come, first served basis so we recommend you discuss formation of a group at a public forum such as Parish Council meeting. If there is a Community Land Trust already established in the Parish please make contact with them.

The Community Support Grants (Stage 1 and Stage 2 applications) are paid directly to community groups for them to administer in a way that best suits the ambitions of the group.

Viability Study funding will be primarily spent on procuring and commissioning external consultants to produce a technical report and Business Case. This involves formulating a scope of works, negotiating fees and administering payment of VAT invoices, which can place a burden on groups that may not have experience in this field. While the vision for the scheme will be created with full involvement from the community group, the Council has dedicated resources to carry out this work on your behalf.

The maximum grant allocation per site is £5,000. This will apply to every group regardless of incorporation status. However, if after completing the viability study it does not proceed, a group can apply for a further grant of £5,000 on a different site.

It is not possible to apply for grants on 2 sites concurrently.

With limited resources available for the Borough, it is important that groups work within the budget amounts set for each stage. However, In exceptional circumstances we may be able to make an additional discretionary payment to cover unforeseen costs that arise.

If you anticipate an over-spend on a particular stage please contact us to discuss the options available as it is essential that any budget over-spend is pre-approved.

Affordable housing is a term used for housing which is owned and managed by a Council or registered provider (housing association).

There are different types of Affordable Housing such as social rent, typically 50-60% of local open market rental and affordable rented housing, typically 80% of the open market value (including service charges where applicable). There are also properties available to buy on a shared ownership basis where you can own a percentage and pay a rent on the part that the registered provider owns.

The council uses a number of sources of data to identify the need.  This can be from our Devon Home Choice register where people who need an affordable home can register.

The council has also created a parish profile for the whole of the District with interesting facts and figures on housing within the parish.  The process can be requested from the Housing Enabling Team.

If a need is identified and a site is being proposed, community consultation events will be arranged in conjunction with the Parish Council and a more in-depth housing need survey will be required and undertaken by the District Council which will target the whole parish.

Housing needs data will be required as part of the planning justification if a development is proposed on an Exception site.

The council can own affordable housing. However, most of the affordable houses are owned by registered providers or housing associations as they were previously known.

Older affordable housing that was previously owned by the council will be secured for local people using our local allocations policy. In bands A-D, properties will be allocated in the first instance to those who have a local connection to the parish before this is cascaded out to the Borough. Local connection is defined as:

• Residence for 6 out of the last 12 months
• Residence for 3 out of the last 5 years
• Immediate family (parents, siblings and children) with 5 years residence
• Permanent employment of 16 hours or more
• Armed Services personnel

New build affordable housing will be secured through local connection criteria through a legal document called a section 106 agreement. On an exception site, this will be secured to people local to the parish in bands A – E in the first instance.

There may be shared ownership properties that can be bought.  The owner will buy a percentage of the property and pay a rent on the unowned equity to the registered provider who will part own the property with the owner. 

You may be able to ‘Stair-case’ out of your Shared Ownership property to own 100%, this will be dependant on the location and the funding that was used to build the property. The registered provider will be able to answer this question.

Anyone wishing to register for an affordable home will need to be registered on the Devon wide choice based lettings register called Devon Home Choice. The guide and process can be found on Devon Home Choice. Applicants will be placed in one of 5 bands, A being the highest priority and E the lowest priority. The person with the highest band and longest date who has the correct local connection criteria will be the successful bidder subject to checks by the housing association or local authority.

A local lettings plan would be considered on new and subsequent vacancies. This would usually sit underneath a Section 106 (S106) agreement. In the absence of a S106 agreement this document would take priority over the Local Allocations Policy. Local Lettings Plans need to be reviewed on an annual basis to ensure that they are still fit for purpose and updated with any changes to legislation.

An allocated site for housing is secured through the local plan for the local authority area. West Devon has a Joint Local Plan with South Hams and Plymouth. Within the plan, sites that will deliver both affordable housing and open market will be identified. These sites will have passed a desk top assessment about their suitability for development. However, they will still be required to go through the normal planning process in order to be granted a planning consent to build.

An exception site is land which has not been allocated in the councils plans for development. They are called exception sites as they must provide a high level of affordable housing in order for them to be acceptable in planning terms.  Any site which is under discussion should seek advice from the planning department to discuss the relevant planning policy. Sites should not be in the countryside but should be adjacent or close to the existing community.

It is common for Community Land Trusts to have a local lettings plan as this can add further priority to local people, especially if this is a main aim of the affordable housing scheme. There are different local lettings plans in place around the Borough and examples of these can be shared. Each one is unique to the particular parish. For example they may seek to assist with housing in a neighbouring parish who does not have opportunities for development or prioritise certain workers i.e. lifeboat response staff.