A PILOT scheme ensuring half of all new build homes in South Lakeland will have to be affordable for people on low incomes will be tested for 12 months.
Developers hope the new guidelines will open up more land for affordable homes and give people on low wages the aspiration to own their own property.
The move comes in a week when the National Housing Federation said 14,000 households were on a waiting list for an affordable home in Cumbria and warned the housing time bomb could explode if the problem was not remedied.
The new housing policy, drawn up by South Lakeland District Council, has been broadly welcomed by house-builders who have described it as a sensible move.
Russell Armer managing director Martyn Nicholson said the scheme allowed flexibility for negotiating the number of affordable homes and the level of local occupancy.
SLDC councillors have backed the move as a good starting point for tackling the housing shortage.
For story in full see March 30 Westmorland Gazette.
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