Rural Exception Sites - What is 'small scale'?

Exceptions Sites are something that Mole Valley (Surrey) uses to help deliver more affordable housing in rural areas.

We do not have a definition of what is considered 'small' or plan to introduce one. It is considered that a figure could be either limiting i.e. more than the stated amount is considered appropriate on a site, or would be used to push for the maximum number of units stated in the policy when the Council considers this inappropriate.

Our draft Affordable Housing SPD looks at this issue and outlines a no. of bullet points whereby an exception site may be considered acceptable. We have used reference to 'fitting in' with the character / scale of the hosting rural community / settlement rather than a figure.

I would suggest that if you did start to look at setting a figure you need to consider what you would generally consider acceptable in rural villages. For somewhere like Mole Valley this is probably 5 units. For other Boroughs / District this may be higher / lower and rural depending on the general character, pattern of the settlement and sustainability issues.

Hope this helps.

our current Local Plan Policy specifies not to exceed 0.4ha. Pur draft Core Strategy removes this reference to actual size, and instead requires sites to be small scale in relation to the settlement..as our villages vary enormously in existing size, the intention is that the new development is in scale with the existing village.

At South Oxfordshire the size of the rural exception site is generally determined by the demand evidenced from the Housing Needs Survey. The number provided is usually half that of demand. The Local Plan does not lay down any specific numbers of houses or size of site, neither does the Core Strategy which is coming up to submission. There are the usual caveats about style and character and fitting in with the prevailing local character.

In Shropshire, our Interim Planning Guidance on affordable housing sets a maximum size of 20 dwellings, for "urban" exception sites (defined as settlements over 3,000 population). For smaller settlements (ie. under 3,000 population) exception sites should "reflect the character and scale of the settlement". We decided that it was unwise to put a number on it. It is worth noting that very small schemes take up as much time for an RSL as larger schemes, so setting too low a number can effectively make some schemes unviable.