Monitoring affordable housing delivery

Why do we need to monitor affordable housing?       

We started asking for affordable housing as part of developments over 15 homes at 25% in 2002. This policy has increased to 35% with requirements for different types of affordable housing such as social rented, affordable rent, and shared ownership since 2004. This is set out in our affordable housing policy timeline. 

We monitor affordable housing to make sure it's built and managed as agreed between developers, Registered Providers (also known as housing associations) and the council. When planning permission is given for a large development, the developer must sign a legal document called a Section 106 agreement. This agreement lists the number and type of affordable homes that the developer legally needs to provide on the site of the development. If the developer does not follow the Section 106 agreement, then the council will take enforcement action against them.

We also monitor affordable housing so that we can report accurate and up to date information, and so that we can track whether we're meeting our affordable housing targets.

Who manages affordable housing?

Most affordable housing is managed by Registered Providers. These organisations are run independently from councils. All other affordable housing in Southwark is managed by the council.

Sometimes the developer for a large housing development will be a Registered Provider or the council. Other times, the developer will be independent and will pass on the management of the affordable homes after the homes are built. Affordable housing can only be managed by a housing association or by the council.

What is affordable housing?

As there are so many different types of affordable housing, we no longer use the general term affordable housing. Instead, we use a specific term for each type.

The image below provides a guide on the types of homes that we consider to be affordable in Southwark. You can also download this guide (download) ^{(PDF, 58kb)}. We are aware this document is not fully accessible; please contact planningpolicy@southwark.gov.uk or 020 7525 5471 if you have questions about accessing the information.

How much affordable housing is in Southwark?

Affordable housing can be provided through planning permission, or by Registered Providers building affordable homes or buying homes and managing them as affordable homes. To find out how many affordable homes are in the borough (excluding the council’s own stock), we carry out annual surveys of Registered Providers who manage affordable housing in Southwark.

When we conduct survey, we ask the Registered Providers for the following information about the homes that they manage:

• the number of social rented homes 
• the number of intermediate homes
• the number of affordable homes, where the section 106 agreement does not specify whether it's social rented or a different type
• the number of bedrooms in the homes 
• the number of accessible homes
• the rental levels of the affordable homes
• the diversity of the people living in the affordable homes

We did our first survey of Registered Providers in 2016. We then started doing annual surveys from March 2021. 

We have created an online report which includes the data we have collected from the Registered Providers during our survey. This report is interactive which means you can choose to view the data in different ways including on a map, and in tables.

Access the live Registered Provider survey results

How do we monitor affordable housing?

When affordable housing is required in a planning application legal agreement, we make sure that the affordable housing is still there as agreed.

In 2016, there was an Ombudsman decision that required Southwark to report on whether the different types of affordable homes listed in the legal agreement are still being provided. The Ombudsman decision stated: 'The council failed to have in place a procedure for supervising compliance with Section 106 Agreements, but it recognised that failing and has remedied it by agreeing to an annual audit'.

The council has committed to an annual audit of affordable housing in the borough. This purpose of the audit makes sure the affordable homes are as agreed in the legal agreement. Where affordable homes are not being provided as agreed in the legal agreement, the council takes enforcement action. 

We carried out an audit of legal agreements which required affordable housing in 2017. Download the results of the 2017 audit ^{(xlsx, 97kb)}.  

Legal agreement templates

To ensure the efficient and effective monitoring of affordable homes, we've updated the templates for legal agreements to require developers to submit details on each affordable home once they've been completed.

The developer is also required to submit details of any change in the type of affordable home for example if a home changes from social rented to another type of housing or the shared ownership home is now fully owned by the person who originally purchased the home and has increased their share of ownership to 100%.

The legal agreement template sets out a requirement for developers to complete an affordable housing survey to provide detailed information to the council.

These new processes will ensure the different types of affordable homes within the borough can be more efficiently monitored.

Digital monitoring tools

We are continuing work on back office digital monitoring tools to record and provide information on affordable housing delivery and monitoring without considerable manual tasks.

Local Government Ombudsman Investigation

A Local Government Ombudsman investigation into affordable housing monitoring concluded in December 2022. Its purpose was to see if the council had set up an annual audit of monitoring affordable homes agreed in Section 106 legal agreements with planning application, and that the secured affordable homes continued to be let at target rent. The Ombudsman found in the council’s favour. View the Ombudsman's decision. 

A timeline of how much of each development should be affordable housing

Southwark introduced a requirement for affordable housing in 2002, which has since been increasing. Developments have been required to deliver different amounts of affordable housing depending on the policy at the time of legal agreement. The table below shows a timeline of the affordable housing policy in the borough.

Page last updated: 05 July 2024