Social Housing and Planning Gain: Is This an Appropriate Way of Providing Affordable Housing?

The current mechanism for providing affordable housing through the planning system in England is based on negotiation within the framework of Planning Policy Guidance Note 3 and Circular 6/98. In this paper the authors examine three groups of questions. First, on the development of the policy, they look at how the need for affordable housing is assessed, how the policy evolved, and how it is currently operated. Second, on the principles and potential outputs of the policy they look at how the approach fits into the principles of betterment taxation, what the results are likely to be ‘on the ground’ in terms of price and output of housing, and whether these are consistent with taxation principles. Third, they examine what the evidence is so far on the impact of planning obligations on affordable housing provision. Finally, the authors develop a typology of likely outcomes, particularly regarding who pays for affordable housing.