Housing Need Information commissioned and produced on a district wide basis (known as Housing Needs Surveys) in recent years has provided evidence to show that there is a high level of need for affordable housing and that this need is increasing.

Housing Needs Surveys provide the detail on the level of need from different groups, and income information, what these needs are for, the tenure, type and size, on a sub-area basis. Please see the following documents for more information:

District Wide Housing Needs Survey 2003
District Wide Housing Needs Survey Update 2005
District Wide Housing Needs Survey Supply and Demand Tables 2003

Local Housing Needs Surveys are also a valuable source of information for providing the same detail but on a parish basis. This level of evidence is required to support Exception Site schemes.

Housing Register

The council is still a stockholding authority and therefore its housing register also provides very useful information. It can highlights areas of high demand, and what the need is for in terms of property types and sizes. This information is utilised alongside other housing need data to establish the units types needed when developing a scheme.