Cornwall Council affordable homes what you need to know:-

How are Affordable Homes secured for local people?

When an application is proposed with onsite affordable housing, these homes are secured with a legal agreement called a Section 106.  This is essentially a contract between the landowner and the Council.  The Section 106 is on the land, so once the homes are built and sold (for example to a Registered Provider if for Rent or to an individual if Discount Sale) this S106 is then between the owners of the properties and the Council.

The S106 secures these homes as affordable in perpetuity and provides all the details of the housing scheme as a whole such as how many homes, the type and size of home that will be delivered, who the properties should be allocated to, how much for, how it should be advertised and much more.  There is a template of the Section 106 on the Council’s website if you wanted to see one.

What does Local Connection really mean?

This is a question we get asked many times. We also get told that homes are being allocated to people from out of the county, but here’s why we know this isn’t correct:

As we said above the Section 106 sets out who affordable homes can be allocated to and it details exactly who a qualifying household would be. When a scheme is in a rural area (not a town) the Parish where the homes are to be built is known as the Primary Parish and applicants from the Primary Parish are given first priority.  To qualify for a home the household applying would need to be one of the following:

• Be currently resident (in the parish) and for at least the last 3 years
• Have previously been resident (in the parish) for at least 5 years and wanting to move back
• Working (in the parish) for at least 3 years; at least 16h/w
• Have a current, immediate family connection (mother, father, brother, sister, daughter, son) within the parish for at least 5 years, and where a caring dependency relationship can be established

For rented properties, when a Registered Provider is allocating the homes, if no applicants comes forward from the primary parish, then these homes can be allocated to people from adjoining parishes (known as Secondary Parishes) or to someone with a County connection. They would still need to meet the requirements set out in the Section 106 as a qualifying person for the County. Further information can be found in the Chief Planning Officer Guidance Note on Cascades

There are a very few cases where homes go to people that do not have a County connection such as those who work or who have previously worked in the armed forces (see the Armed Forces Covenant for more information).

If you know of a property that is not being let out in accordance with a S106 then please do let the affordable housing team at Cornwall Council know so that they can look into it.