Affordable housing: building

Last Updated: 24 March 2026

The guidance for Developers below should be read in conjunction with pages 81 to 82 and 143 to 153 of the legacy South Lakeland District Council's Local Plan Core Strategy

Please note that our Local Plan Core Strategy does not apply to land in the Yorkshire Dales or Lake District National Parks.

Contact the relevant national park authority for advice on affordable housing in those areas.

For sites outside the National Parks, Developers should:

• apply for pre-application advice to Westmorland and Furness in the first instance

Once you have submitted your pre-application, you can:

• contact our Housing Strategy and Delivery Specialist (for schemes up to 49 homes)
• contact our Principal Specialist (People) (for schemes of 50 or more homes or 100% social housing schemes)

Further guidance will depend on the specific scheme.

Both the tenure mix and property type mix should be agreed at an early stage.

This information will eventually form part of a legal agreement to secure affordable housing on the site.

We will use evidence from:

• the South Lakeland Strategic Housing Market Assessment
• parish housing need surveys where available
• the Cumbria Choice housing register

Housing need and demand

South Lakeland completed a Strategic Housing and Economic Needs Assessment (SHENA) in 2023. It found a need for 163 affordable rented homes each year, and up to 140 low‑cost home ownership properties. Westmorland and Furness Council will publish a new SHENA in 2026.

Developers must provide the following split of affordable housing on new development schemes:

• 50% low‑cost home ownership

• 50% low‑cost rental

Low cost home ownership (intermediate housing)

• discounted sale: where the initial price is discounted in line with our affordable housing prices and the discount is applied upon resale
• shared ownership: where a percentage share of the home is sold and a rent is charged based on the remaining percentage
• shared equity: where a share of the home is sold but, unlike shared ownership, no rental element is applied

Homes are kept affordable by the affordable price being a fixed percentage of the open market value (the 'appropriate percentage').

This is calculated in the following way: AHP divided by OMV multiplied by 100 = appropriate percentage. The re-sale price is then OMV x appropriate percentage.

Affordable homes for rent

These fall into two categories (these are generally held by housing associations, also called Private Registered Providers of Social Housing):

1. Affordable rents: a maximum of 80% of local market rents (including service charges).

2. Social rents: where rents are set in line with national rent charging regime.

In most cases the provision of affordable rents will be acceptable. In exceptional circumstances social rents will be required.

Developers will agree with housing associations how much they pay for affordable homes. Developers should contact housing associations at an early stage to agree the appropriate rent.

Our housing association development partners are:

• South Lakes Housing
• Riverside
• Castles and Coasts
• Home Group
• Eden Housing
• Progress Housing Group
• Fairoak (learning disability homes)

Monitoring and review

Our affordable housing prices and guidance are reviewed each year.

Section 106 agreements

We are currently reviewing our section 106 agreements.