Emerging supplementary planning documents (SPDs)

Affordable Housing Delivery Supplementary Planning Document

The Council is preparing a supplementary planning document (SPD) on Affordable Housing Delivery and has published a draft of the SPD for public consultation.

The draft Affordable Housing Delivery SPD will help secure the right amount and type of affordable housing in the Borough to help meet the housing needs of residents of the Borough. It sets out detailed guidance to help the Council and developers to achieve as much affordable housing from proposed development schemes as possible, placing the priority on social rented and affordable rented homes which best meet local needs. 

Key elements of the draft guidance include:

  • The amount of affordable housing to be provided and how it should be calculated
  • Ensuring the right size and tenure mix of affordable homes
  • Where affordable homes should be provided and how they should be delivered on sites
  • How to address viability issues
  • The planning application process and legal agreements to secure affordable housing.

You can view the draft SPD via the link in the consultation documents below and also view more information about affordable housing and how the draft SPD can help deliver it by clicking on the link to the FAQs.

The draft SPD is accompanied by an online affordable housing commuted sums calculator to provide a robust, consistent and simple way of calculating financial contributions to affordable housing when, exceptionally, the Council considers this is the most appropriate way to provide for affordable housing. We would welcome comments on the basis of this calculator, which is set out in Appendix 5 of the draft SPD.

The consultation runs until 23.59 on Thursday 20 June 2024.

How to comment on the draft SPD

The best way to comment is by completing our online response form on the Affordable Housing Delivery SPD Consultation portal.

You can also comment by completing the response form in the documents below and return it to us either by:

  • By email to planning.consultation@rbwm.gov.uk
  • By post to, Planning Policy Consultations, Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, Town Hall, St Ives Road, Maidenhead, SL6 1RF

In addition to providing your comments on the draft SPD, we would also like your feedback on some more general questions about the provision of affordable housing in the Royal Borough – do please complete the short questionnaire that is part of the response form.

All comments must be received by the Council by 23.59 on Thursday 20 June 2024.

Documents 

Consultation Events

You can get involved and find out more, by attending one of the following events:

  • Tuesday 4 June 2024 from 2pm to 6.30pm – Windsor Library drop-in session.
  • Wednesday 5 June 2024 from 7pm – 8pm – Online webinar via Microsoft Teams. 
  • Thursday 6 June 2024 from 2pm to 6.30pm – Maidenhead Library drop-in session.

Due to the recent announcement of the General Election we are now in the formal pre-election period. As a result we are changing the format of the webinar. Instead of there being live questions via the chat function in the webinar, we will be giving a presentation about the draft Affordable Housing Delivery SPD and if you have any questions you will be able to send them by email to planning.consultation@rbwm.gov.uk.

Next Steps

Following the consultation, all comments received will be reviewed and a final version of the Affordable Housing Delivery SPD will be prepared.