Integrating affordable housing within market-rate developments: the design dimension

Current planning policy in England enables local planning authorities to require housing developments above a certain size to include a proportion of 'affordable' housing. The policy has social objectives (that is, to create 'mixed' communities and reduce the potential for the 'ghettoisation' of affordable housing) and financial objectives (that is, to shift the cost of providing social housing to the private sector). Although aspects of the policy have been the subject of research the design issues have yet to be fully investigated. Viewed from a development process perspective, the key design question is how layout and design decisions are affected by the developer's perception (or market experience) that the inclusion of affordable units has a detrimental effect on the market-rate housing. To aid further research, the author develops a classification of design strategies and outcomes necessitated by the inclusion of an element of affordable housing.