COUNCILLORS at West Dorset District Council are to discuss a petition calling for £9.7 million to be spent on affordable housing.

The petition, signed by 400 west Dorset residents, was submitted by Claudia Sorin on behalf of Dorchester and District Labour Party.

It calls for WDDC to ‘invest the same amount of money that is spent on the new council premises – £9.7million – on low cost housing in the area’.

Barry Thompson from the Dorchester and District Labour Party said: “There are more than 1,000 households on the waiting list for housing in west Dorset and in addition to this there are many young people and families in privately rented housing, which is often insecure and too expensive to allow them to build up any savings.

“West Dorset has lower than national average pay and higher than national average prices – house prices outstrip wages by 12 to one. The council should be enforcing its own policy that new housing developments must include 35 per cent affordable homes.

“This petition shows that local people expect the council to do better and calls on the council to invest in decent, genuinely affordable homes for its residents.”

The petition will be discussed by councillors at the WDDC executive committee tomorrow.

A report to councillors states it is not disputed that there is ‘significant need’ for affordable housing in the district.

The report highlights that although there is a local plan policy seeking 35 per cent affordable housing on new development sites, it is ‘clear that this is subject to negotiation on each site and dependent on development viability’.

It adds that the executive committee will, at the same meeting, be considering proposals for once-off funding from reserves to support projects and schemes.

This is covered in a separate report but is due to include options for the allocation of funding towards the provision of affordable housing.

An assesmnet in 2014 indicated a need of 104 new homes in west Dorset each year and a combined total affordable housing need of 207 each year across the joint local plan area of west Dorset and Weymouth and Portland – out of the total housing need of 775 a year across the joint local plan area.

The Housing Strategy set a target of between 70 and 100 new affordable homes a year in west Dorset.

The average annual delivery of affordable housing over the last five years has been within this target range, at 88 per annum, though the rate each year has varied.

The council has capital funding committed towards affordable housing development: £278,488 has been spent on affordable housing schemes and projects over the last three years; £1.1m remains in this budget and £435,744 of the remaining funds is committed.

The council also collects contributions towards off site affordable housing.