North Norfolk's £1.1m grants for 71 affordable houses

North Norfolk District Council (NNDC)’s cabinet has agreed to help social housing providers – companies which rent homes at an affordable level - purchase 71 properties in five areas. 

In total, the council will provide £1,186,000 in grants to ensure the houses can be delivered. 

North Norfolk District Council's offices (Image: Archant)

The five sites are Holt, Swanton Novers, Salthouse, Warham and Walcott. 

The money for the project comes from Section 106 receipts – a levy paid by developers to cover things like affordable housing when low-cost schemes are not possible on a particular site. If the money is not used in a specific time period it is returned to the developer. 

Some 23 of the homes will be delivered on a site in Hempstead Road, Holt, with a grant of £28,696 per property going to Flagship Homes. 

Originally the developer on the site, Hopkins Homes, had promised to deliver the affordable housing itself, as part of a larger 51-home scheme, but successfully argued that was not viable. 

Flagship and NNDC then stepped in to buy the 23 homes. 

The seven homes in Swanton Novers are being developed by Broadland Housing Association in conjunction with a ‘community land trust’, a group of locals who came together to take on the site. 

Broadland will own the homes while the locals continue owning the ground. NNDC will provide a grant of £21,429 per home. 

Five homes will be delivered on Purdy Street in Salthouse, with a £9,200 grant per property. 

A view towards Purdy Street in Salthouse (Image: Google)

In a report, NNDC described the scheme as “especially badly needed” due to the area having a 48pc level of second and holiday homes – one of the highest in the country. 

The final homes are 12 properties on land east of Stiffkey Road in Warham and between 18 and 23 on Ostend Road in Walcott.