South Hams District Council is significantly underperforming in delivering the affordable and social homes local people desperately need, a national report reveals.

A 2025 Strategic Housing Market Assessment, commissioned by CPRE and conducted by the University of the West of England, shows affordable housing targets are being missed, and local policy is falling far short of actual need. Government figures suggest over 1,600 households are waiting for social housing in the South Hams.

The report follows the government’s recent decision to scrap rural targets in its Social and Affordable Housing Programme — a move experts fear could worsen the situation. While the government's new “Standard Method” for calculating housing demand has overestimated need in some areas, the research shows that 79% of rural local authorities have consistently built too few homes compared to household growth.

In South Hams, the most recent Housing Needs Assessment (from 2017) found that 98 new affordable homes are needed every year — including homes for social rent and shared ownership. Yet from 1997 to 2023, an average of just 254 homes total were built each year. And with Council policy only requiring 29% of homes to be “affordable”, that translates to around 74 affordable homes annually — well below requirement.

Using the government’s new calculation method, the report estimates South Hams should now be building 910 homes a year — a staggering 364% increase on the 2017 target.

The challenge is heightened by what the report describes as “high second-home ownership and low affordability” in the area, which distorts the housing market and risks pricing out local people. It warns that without tighter controls, new developments may end up delivered for second homes or inward migration.

The cost-of-living crisis is especially acute in the countryside, where house prices and private rents outpace local wages. In rural areas like South Hams, this gap leaves workers, young people, and families increasingly locked out of secure housing.

Despite this, the Council’s key planning document — the Local Plan — was adopted in 2014 and is still based on the 2017 housing needs assessment. With these documents now over seven years out of date, South Hams is planning for a level of need that no longer reflects the reality on the ground.

CPRE’s head of planning, Paul Miner, said: “The government’s commitment to build more social housing is encouraging, but we’re not yet convinced that enough will be done to tackle the housing crisis in rural areas. Not enough priority is being given in rural local plans to building social homes.”

The urgency is underscored by government figures showing a 73% rise in rural homelessness since 2018. In some areas of the countryside, rough sleeping now outpaces major cities.

Housing is not a fringe issue — it touches everything: the workforce, the school roll, the care system, the village shop. Unless South Hams District Council takes action to meet its social housing commitments in both policy and delivery, the risk is clear: a region becoming increasingly unaffordable for the very people who keep it alive.

SHDC have not responded to the Gazette’s request for comment at this time, but have made assurances they will look into the data. The Council has agreed to transfer land at the Rope Walk Site in Kingsbridge to Hastoe Housing Association - making way for 10 “genuinely affordable” homes.