It was disappointing to see Dorset Council vote in favour of a motion to lobby government for changes to policies on viability.

The authority is now set to write to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Angela Rayner MP, about its concerns and call for its own policies to take precedence over national provisions to ensure more affordable housing is built.

During the debate, at a full meeting of the council, it was said that we need to ‘get to grips’ with the issue of viability.

This is quite right but setting aside viability as a material planning consideration and telling developers that maximum affordable housing targets are fixed will be counterproductive.

It won’t enable more affordable housing to be delivered – it will achieve precisely the opposite.

It will further reduce the number of schemes coming forward and place even greater pressure on developers already faced with numerous costs and red tape.

Ultimately, the way to get more affordable housing is to build more housing as a whole, but also to reduce the burdens on development.

Clearly there is more work to do to break this impasse.

Watch the debate on the council’s You Tube channel, starting a 1hr 35 minutes, here.

There is more on our views about this issue here.