A REVIEW of the way affordable housing is supplied in the Yorkshire Dales National Park will be carried out in the next few months.

Members of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority agreed today (Tuesday) to work with housing authorities to look at practical ways of improving the supply of homes being built for local people.

And they also agreed to make the service that deals with planning applications a higher priority.

The authority’s Housing Development Plan (HDP) was adopted in 2012 and aims to get more affordable housing built to stem the tide of families moving away from the communities where they were born. It also aims to retain new houses in local occupancy to prevent them being snapped up as second homes or retirement properties.

Authority chairman Peter Charlesworth said: “We and our district council partners set a target of delivering an average of at least 30 affordable houses a year in the National Park. The number of planning applications approved has risen in the last two years but the actual number of homes being built is still struggling to reach that level.

“There are a number of economic reasons for this. Most are out of our control but we still need to see if there’s anything more we, as a National Park Authority, can do to help improve delivery.

“The review will look again at some of the practical aspects of providing affordable houses for local occupancy – rather than as second homes or holiday homes. In particular, it will look at whether some additional flexibility is needed to make it viable to develop some of the allocated housing sites.

Members also agreed to make the development management service – which handles all planning applications – one of the Authority’s top priority programmes.

Mr Charlesworth said: “Planning matters affect virtually everyone who lives or works in the National Park and it is important that they are treated as a top priority, especially in terms of encouraging more affordable housing.”