Two major phases of new housing development feature in Tiverton’s built environment, the third quarter of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century. Both have dramatically changed the character of the town.
A major issue in 2006 is the affordability of homes and provision of enough homes of good quality, high standard and appropriate size to house the growing local population. The Exe Valley Plan support Mid Devon District Council’s current drive to achieve affordable housing for local people. The Plan supports a balanced development of homes to suit varied sizes of family in both the owner-occupied and rented sectors, and a realistic balance in the allocation of land between housing and employment to achieve local sustainability.
7.1 The housing landscape
7 . 1 . 1 Post war development, both council and private, occurred to the east of the town, on the steep western slopes overlooking the town and in a limited way on the north east of the town.
7 . 1 . 2 It comprised single and double storey buildings for the mass market, with function rather than design at the forefront. A substantial proportion of these developments were council housing.
7.1.3 On the east side of the town ’sixties council housing with ‘concrete cancer’ was replaced by much better brick-faced family housing in the 1990s.
7.1.4 A new distributor road was built on the north side of the town in the 1990s, which opened up this area for housing development as far north as the North Devon Link road.
7.1.5 One locally important building, Cowleymoor House, was lost to development here.
7.1.6 Turn of the century developments in this area and in Farleigh Meadows to the west of the town were largely two-storey private houses.
7.1.7 Twenty-first century housing has been three storey development of varying design quality, both infilling and on greenfield sites. This is providing a new townscape, not wholly welcomed in terms of some designs, but there still remains insufficient housing to satisfy demand.
7 . 1 . 8 April 2003 statistics show 170 households homeless with 982 households on the housing list
. 7.2 House prices and affordability
7.2.1 In 2005, the house prices to earnings ratio for Mid Devon was 9.3 compared with a ratio of 8.6 for Great Britain.
7.2.2
House price change 2001-2005 Source: Land Registry data for 2001 (April – December),
2002-4 (all year), 2005 (January - March)
7.3 Households
Housing by tenure and composition, 2001
7 . 3 . 1 The total number of households in the Tiverton market town area is 14,062, of which 7,952 are in Tiverton parish and 6,110 in the remaining parishes.
7.3.2 Owner occupation in Tiverton parish (63.9%) remains significantly lower than the remaining parishes (77.3%), and is below Mid Devon (71.8%) and Devon County (74.3%) levels.
7.3.3 The proportion of council houses in Tiverton parish (16.3%) is well above that of the remaining parishes (7.3%), Mid Devon District (11.0%) , and Devon County (6.8%). Tenants recently voted against a transfer of council housing to a Housing Association (2006).
7.3.4 Housing Association property comprises 4% of households in Tiverton parish and 2.1% in the remaining parishes.
7.3.5 The private rented market is burgeoning with 11.6% of households in Tiverton parish and 8.6% of households in the remaining parishes.
7.3.6 In new developments, affordable housing is in the hands of social landlords.
7.3.7 There is a significant rise in private housing for rent. Two estate agents deal in letting only.
7.3.8 Single person households comprise 30.6% of households in Tiverton compared with 23.2% in the remaining parishes. Tiverton’s percentage is just above the Devon County percentage.
7.4 Affordable housing and land for housing developments Affordable housing is a high priority in the MDDC
Community Strategic Plan, which the Exe Valley Plan complements. Both town and country have a substantial proportion of property owned as second homes. While such property is often available for long term renting in Tiverton, a significantly higher percentage of properties in the villages and countryside are only occupied periodically.
Tiverton
7.4.1 Proposed infilling sites include the controversial tennis court site behind the Town Hall, fronting on the river Exe, and a development behind cottages in St. Andrew Street South adjacent to Great Western Way on the south side of the town.
7 . 4 . 2 Greenfield sites include land adjacent to Farleigh Meadow and more land at Higher Moor.
7.4.3 There is a shortage of suitable land available for development to meet government targets.
7.4.4 The Core Strategy of the Local Development Framework proposes a target of 50% affordable housing on new developments.
Parish Plans
7.4.5 Views on housing development in the four published parish plans are varied, with the majority in Halberton against new development on grounds of poor infrastructure and transport to support such development. Like Halberton, the majority of Stoodleigh residents supported infilling but not new development. Oakford had a small majority in favout of new housing development, while Burlescombe identified a need for five new affordable homes.
The Exe Valley Plan -
