Housing Market

Welcome to the published final versions of the County-wide Strategic Housing Market Assessments (SHMAs) for Cumbria. 

The Cumbria Housing Group is a forum to discuss and coordinate housing activities in Cumbria on behalf of the Six Districts, the Lake District National Park Authority and Cumbria County Council, plus representatives of Registered Social Landlords and the housing development industry. The Executive of the Cumbria Housing Group includes Local Authority Member representation, which sets the policy of the Group. The Chairperson of the Executive is Councillor Richard Turner from Eden District Council. The Cumbria Housing Group (through the Cumbria Housing Strategy 2006-2011) has identified 20 Housing Market Areas across Cumbria.

During 2008/2009, the Research & Information Group [a sub-task group of the Cumbria Housing Group (CHG)] prepared draft county-wide Strategic Housing Market Assessments (SHMAs) for each district local authority area in Cumbria, except for Barrow-in-Furness whose SHMA is still under preparation. In total there are 20 SMHAs covering Cumbria’s six district areas.A stakeholder consultation was carried out from 31st July 2009 for six weeks until the 11th September 2009. Following this consultation, the R&I Group reviewed the comments made, and made appropriate amendments before publishing the final versions of the SHMAs here. The SHMAs may also be viewed on the respective District Council website. A separate schedule of all the representations submitted and the District’s responses and proposed amendments to the SHMAs are also included in the documents below. 

Each SHMA contains a wealth of information covering: 

·        demography and household types;  

·        national and regional economic policy;  

·        employment levels and structure;  

·        incomes and earnings;  

·        dwelling profiling;  

·        stock condition;  

·        shared housing; 

·        cost of buying or renting property;  

·        overcrowding and under-occupation;  

·        vacant dwellings, second homes; and  

·        housing requirements of specific groups.   

The preparation of SHMAs for each of the identified Housing Market Areas is a requirement of national Government planning advice contained in PPS3 – Housing. Each of the SHMAs follows the relevant Government Guidance [CLG – Strategic Housing Market Assessments - Practice Guidance Version 2 (August 2007) see www.communities.gov.uk] chapter by chapter to ensure alignment and that they have been completed in accordance with national advice. 

We have worked in association with our economic regeneration colleagues at Cumbria Vision to identify a series of economic scenarios, from which five future housing scenarios, including two that identify an upper and lower limit to possible housing requirement, have been produced. Based upon the SHMA evidence and other local evidence, each Local Planning Authority will now be in a position to choose the future levels of new housing provision and the policies appropriate for their area. 

The production of the 20 Cumbria SHMAs will therefore provide a crucial evidence base to support the future delivery of new housing and economic development in Cumbria for each of the six Districts’ and the Lake District National Park Authority’s emerging Local Development Frameworks and other strategies. As a consequence of this evidence base, each Local Planning Authority should be able to set out in their LDFs the likely overall proportion of households that require market or affordable housing, the likely profile of household types requiring market housing, and the size and type of affordable housing required. It is also intended that the local SHMAs should be used to inform future housing policies set in the Regional Strategy for the North West (RS2010) and local housing strategies. It is intended that the Cumbrian SHMAs will be capable of being updated in the foreseeable future.

If you have any queries regarding specific aspects of the SHMAs, please contact the following District Housing Officers, who will be able to answer your query:

Allerdale Borough Council:  Angela Harrison (01900) 702662; e-mail: angela.harrison@allerdale.gov.uk

Carlisle City Council:  Anthony Adrianowski (01228) 817443; e-mail: AnthonyA@carlisle.gov.uk

Copeland Borough Council:  Kate Skillicorn (01946) 598399; e-mail: Kate.Skillicorn@copeland.gov.uk

Eden District Council:  Lee Walker (01768) 212489;e-mail: lee.walker@eden.gov.uk

South Lakeland District Council:  Tony Whittaker (01539) 797773;e-mail: T.Whittaker@southlakeland.gov.uk