Report by Local Democracy Reporter – Eddie Bisknell
The challenge of providing “affordable” housing to buy in the most expensive part of the East Midlands has been laid bare in a new report.
People wanting to buy a home in the Derbyshire Dales face the challenge of trying to enter the region’s most costly real estate market, with an average house price of £348,000.
The district council holds much of the burden for ensuring so-called affordable homes are built in sufficient numbers around the Dales, as mandated by Government targets.
However, as a Dales meeting this month made clear, current affordable housing levers can still result in properties which are not truly affordable – making the term an entire misnomer.
A developer was set to agree to build seven affordable rent apartments in Matlock, but council officials said this label – 80 per cent of the market rate – would be unaffordable for their intended market, with housing associations also disinterested in the scheme.
As a result, the council instead agreed to accept £318,000 to facilitate building affordable homes elsewhere in the Dales.
In August 2024, national housing developer Gladman told the council “The Derbyshire Dales district is inherently unaffordable”, saying it was “in the midst of an affordable housing crisis”.
The council has now published a new report on affordable housing progress in which it says there are 1,167 “affordable” homes across 62 schemes in the development pipeline, but only 20 per cent have planning permission, meaning it will be a significant wait before those properties become a reality.
Meanwhile, the council says it is to use £1.4 million to prop-up “at risk” developments in the Peak District National Park containing 126 would-be affordable homes.
This money will be used to ensure these properties are not lost in efforts to meet budget limits on financially constrained sites.
The council says construction in the Peak Park – which takes up half of the Dales – is much more heavily constrained, due to extra restrictions from the Park authority, including a requirement for a 10-year local connection.
It also said housing associations are less able and likely to build in the area due to the higher costs of development linked with more isolated plots of land, with schemes also involving much fewer homes which are less attractive for viable management.
This can see would-be affordable homes lost despite being agreed by councils and developers, due to lack of interest.
Alongside this, the council says it has increased its own housing stock from 43 to 62 properties in the last 12 months, largely by buying and upgrading existing homes, some of which were long-term vacant.
The council says there are currently up to 850 households in the Dales who need homes, with only around 60 new-build affordable homes being built each year.
At that rate, it would take more than 14 years’ worth of building to accommodate all households currently in need of a reduced-rate property.
The authority also says there are only around 250 re-lets of rented affordable homes each year, meaning these properties are not sufficient to rotate often enough to accommodate the waiting families.
New data published by the authority shows Matlock is the area with the most households in need of a home, with 454 households, followed by Ashbourne with 230, Darley Dale with 195 and Wirksworth with 133.
It shows that of the households in need of a home in the top 25 towns and parishes, 239 households meet the Peak Peak’s eligibility for a 10-year local connection required in order to gain a home.
In the Peak Park, the areas with highest need for affordable homes are:
- Bakewell (48)
- Tideswell (23)
- Bradwell (22)
- Hathersage (20)
- Cromford (18)
Developers have around 297 affordable homes in the pipeline for the Peak Park, but most do not have planning permission, with the remaining 883 homes aimed outside the Peak Park, within Dales jurisdiction.
The Dales council says it is actively encouraging housing associations to expand their sites and patches to include more homes in the Dales.
It says Platform Housing Group will only consider developments of 30 or more homes and only near its existing portfolio, such as in Hathersage or Eyam.
Nottingham Community Housing Association and the Peak District Rural Housing Association are said to be fully committed to more construction and management.
East Midlands Homes have expanded into the Dales through a site in Old Hackney Lane, near Darley Dale, and are committed to growth in the district, the council says, including in the Peak Park.
Acis is also keen to build and manage in the Peak Park and Dales, while Futures Housing Group says it is already developing in Ashbourne and is keen to extend further north into Matlock and Darley Dale, but not the Peak Park.
Trent and Dove have confirmed interest but limited to the southern parts of the Dales, including Ashbourne, Brailsford and Doveridge.
The council says it can provide between £5,000 and £30,000 per property to housing associations to enable affordable homes to be built, where financial viability is becoming an issue, threatening construction.
This has been mostly in the Peak Park, “where the viability is more challenging”.
A total of £1.4 million has been approved to prop up schemes for 16 homes in Hathersage, 30 homes in Tideswell, 18 homes in Eyam, 18 homes in Bradwell, 10 homes in Bakewell, 14 homes in Calver and 20 homes in Stoney Middleton.
Meanwhile, the council is considering spending £440,000 to build and manage three properties in Baslow itself, which already has planning consent, but is at risk of being lost after failing to attract any interest from housing associations.
These would be rented one-bed bungalows, able to produce rent totalling £18,000 a year, the council says, for highly insulated, energy efficient homes with wildflower roofs.
