Parish and Town Councils

AFFORDABLE
COMPREHENSIVE
FLEXIBLE

Key Features of our Housing Needs Surveys and evidence bases for Parish and Town Councils:

• affordable to councils with relatively low numbers of households;
• comprehensive, robust and professional reports written by experts;
• research methodology and outputs that conform with government practice guidance;
research that puts findings in a local context including that of the Local Plan;
• a flexible approach to questionnaire design allowing additional questions of local concern to be asked; and 
• can be used in support of an emerging neighbourhood plan or neighbourhood plan review.

Why should parish and town councils commission a housing needs survey?

















Why CNB Housing Insights? 


Housebuilding is often an issue for parish and town councils to consider. Some see a need for new housebuilding especially in built up areas, others wish to limit housebuilding particularly in small rural villages. Planning applications for rural exceptions can be contentious. CNB Housing Insights believes that it is important to understand what local needs exist bearing in mind that especially in rural areas some households and many newly forming households (sons and daughters of existing households) cannot afford local house prices.

Our housing needs surveys are completely up to date and seek to understand need and demand for affordable home ownership products.  Our recent surveys show increasing demand for these products including discounted market sale and the emerging first homes scheme.  These schemes are particularly well suited to first time buyers provided they are truly affordable to local people.

All parish and town councils are consulted on planning applications received by the district or borough councils (the local planning authority (LPA)). An up to date housing needs survey ensures that the parish or town council’s response to these consultations will carry more weight with the LPA. This is because the parish or town council will be able to cite evidence in addition to the council’s assessment of public opinion.

Parish and town councils producing a neighbourhood development plan need robust evidence to underpin local housing policies.  We have vast experience of adapting our Housing Needs Surveys to sound out public opinion about relevant issues as well as collect the information specified by government practice guidance to assess local future housing requirements.

Most organisations that undertake housing needs surveys and housing needs assessments develop their own methodology with little or no regard to government practice guidance: 'Housing Needs Assessments: A Guide to Good Practice'.  As a consequence the quality and robustness of varies considerably across the industry.  We can demonstrate that our housing heeds surveys closely follow this important guidance.

CNB Housing Insights has a flexible approach to HNS questionnaire design. Our basic survey questionnaire is short and easy for residents to complete. However, in addition to questions needed to assess the need for additional housing locally as defined by the Government Practice Guidance 'Housing Needs Assessments: A Guide to Good Practice', we can add questions to find out what the general public believes about:

• the need for additional housing generally;
• what priorities respondents would attach to housing being provided for particular household groups such as new households, older people and key workers;
• what types of housing the public believes necessary, if any; and
• what additional facilities local households wish to see established locally.

Chris and Nicola have worked within over 100 parish and town councils areas to deliver Housing Needs Surveys and Housing Needs Assessments.
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