Local Housing Plan 2025 to 2027  

Executive summary

This Local Housing Plan has been developed to set out how the Devon and Torbay Combined County Authority (DTCCA) will lead on delivering the recommendations of the Devon Housing Commission and put the combined authority area in a position to take advantage of the opportunities presented to it by devolution now, and in the future. It provides structure to our work and will sit alongside the other DTCCA policy documents: the Local Growth Plan, the Local Transport Plan and the Skills and Future Workforce Plan.  

We recognise the fantastic work that the housing authorities in our area are already doing. The Devon Housing Commission also identified that some of the potential solutions to the housing crisis in our area could be better tackled at a broader geographic area; this is what the Devon and Torbay Local Housing Plan is designed to achieve.  

Developing a new Devon and Torbay Housing Strategy, delivering a Spatial Development Strategy for the region and promoting the opportunities here in Devon and Torbay can all be successful at the Combined County Authority level. This plan sets out our high-level actions. We will use this plan to identify resource where necessary and apply it to those areas with the biggest impact.  

Devon and Torbay need more of the right type of homes in the right places. Successful delivery of this plan alongside the work that housing authorities are carrying out will set us on the right path to achieve that. 

Background to Devon and Torbay’s Housing Work

• The Devon Housing Commission has identified a deepening housing crisis across the county, driven by a combination of affordability issues, demographic shifts, viability and supply constraints. House prices and rental costs have risen sharply, outpacing local incomes and making it nearly impossible for many residents, especially younger people and key workers, to secure suitable accommodation.
• The county has historically underdelivered affordable housing, and the current rate of provision remains well below national averages. Social housing stock has been depleted by Right to Buy sales, and private rental options have largely shrunk due to the conversion of long-term lets into short-term holiday accommodation.
• Devon’s rural geography and protected landscapes present additional challenges to housing development. Narrow roads, steep terrain, and planning restrictions in National Parks National Landscapes and other environmental constraints can limit opportunities for new construction.
• Moreover, community resistance to development, especially in smaller towns and villages, further complicates efforts to expand housing supply. The Commission also highlights the issue of under-occupation, with many larger homes occupied by one or two older residents, while younger families struggle to find appropriate housing. This demographic imbalance is contributing to labour shortages in essential services, as workers are priced out of the areas where they are most needed.
• The Devon and Torbay Local Growth Plan highlight a demographic shift where the population under 39 is stagnating, while residents aged 65 and over are projected to become the largest age group by 2033 – surpassing those aged 40 to 64. This trend raises significant concerns around future productivity and labour supply and is further exacerbated by persistent challenges in the local housing market.
• The crisis is also having serious social consequences. Councils are increasingly reliant on temporary accommodation, which is both costly and disruptive for families. Poor housing conditions are linked to worsening health outcomes, adding pressure to the NHS and social care systems.
• The rise of second homes and holiday lets, while economically beneficial in some respects, is hollowing out communities and reducing the availability of long-term housing. The Commission calls for action, including increased investment in affordable housing, reforms to planning and housing policy, and a joined-up approach to tackling these issues through the now formed Combined County Authority.

Strategic Context

• The DTCCA was established to bring devolved powers and funding from central government to local decision-makers, enabling more responsive and locally tailored policymaking. Its scope covers key and interconnected areas such as strategic housing, transport, adult skills and employment and economic development.
• The DTCCA brings together representatives from Devon County Council, Torbay Council, district councils, national parks, and business and skills sectors. This collaborative governance model allows the region to make strategic decisions that reflect local priorities, including addressing housing pressures, improving connectivity, and supporting net zero ambitions.
• The Devon and Torbay Devolution Deal includes new housing powers, especially in relation to land assembly and acquisition, and commitments aimed at addressing the region’s acute housing challenges. Under the proposed arrangements, the Authority will take on a strategic role in accelerating and supporting housing development across Devon and Torbay.
• This includes working in partnership with Devon County Council, Torbay Council, the District Councils and Homes England to develop a shared pipeline of housing projects, with a focus on delivering homes that are of the right type, in the right place, and affordable for local people. The deal builds on the work of the Devon Housing Commission and the Housing Task Force, and is designed to unlock stalled developments, support innovation in housing delivery, and ensure that housing growth aligns with local economic and environmental priorities.
• As part of this approach, the Government committed at least £8 million in capital funding to support small-scale and green housing projects across the DTCCA. This funding was allocated to housing authorities and has supported schemes as varied as retrofitting homes with new, green energy solutions to repurposing unused visitor accommodation for transformation to affordable housing  This initial grant was a positive start, but to successfully convene partners and support the implementation of the Devon Housing Commission recommendations we will be making the case for more funding.
• The funding was part of a broader package of devolved powers and potential resources that aim to give Devon and Torbay greater control over local priorities, including housing, transport, and skills. The DTCCA will also have the ability to influence housing policy more directly through our housing strategy, enabling better coordination between housing supply and workforce needs, particularly in sectors facing recruitment challenges due to affordability issues.
• The DTCCA delivering on the recommendations of the Devon Housing Commission should help tackle the shortage of affordable homes, support economic development, and improve social outcomes by ensuring housing provision is better aligned with local needs.
• The DTCCA Housing Study focussing on the economic constraints of a lack of the right type of housing, has completed a literature review and found strong evidence that under-delivery of affordable housing is significantly constraining the DTCCA sub-region’s economy. A shortage of affordable homes is driving out key workers, particularly in essential sectors like care, which are increasingly vital due to Devon’s aging population. The housing crisis is also contributing to falling school enrolments and poorer educational outcomes, especially for children in temporary accommodation. This is further weakening productivity and DTCCA’s long-term economic growth prospects. A lack of affordable housing is pushing out economically active young people, weakening the talent pipeline and stalling growth in strategic sectors like clean energy and defence.
• The New Economics Foundation’s (NEF) 2024 report ‘Building the homes we need’, underscores the value of investing in social and affordable housing and provides useful assumptions that will help underpin the DTCCA Housing Study economic modelling. The NEF report estimates that building 90,000 homes annually could generate £51.2 billion in net economic benefits in England over 30 years i.e. £566,667 per home. Economic benefits include reduced housing benefit costs, increased tax revenues, and improved workforce stability. Social housing also yields public savings through better health, education, and reduced crime, with household-level benefits ranging from £1,600 to £6,600 per affordable home annually.
• Stakeholder consultations reinforced the literature review findings and highlighted some additional concerns. This included that the housing crisis is affecting the delivery of industrial space, which ultimately also hinders economic growth, because developers often seek to ‘flip’ land use on allocated employment sites to housing because residential uses generate larger profits. There is also a particular problem of affordable housing provision in rural areas because it is often not viable for Registered Providers (RP) to sustain small numbers of affordable homes e.g. 3 or 4 units in small settlements. This market failure is leading to a trend of divestment from rural areas by many RPs, which further compounds the existing housing crisis.
• As we develop this plan, we are mindful of ongoing Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) in our area. Whatever the outcome, we will keep this Local housing Plan up to date and relevant. Much of this plan refers to actions that transcend authority boundaries and so will continue regardless. The timescale of the plan takes this into account with most activity running until 2027. Similarly, this plan provides a firm basis for housing work should any plans to move to a mayoral combined authority come to fruition.

Key Themes and Objectives

This housing plan and the work that flows from it will adhere to the key themes identified below:

• Working together for all of Devon and Torbay: Local housing authority collaboration under the DTCCA, understanding that different solutions work in different places and extending this approach to align with place-based transport, skills and economic growth initiatives.
• Housing choice: the right homes in the right place, meeting the needs of local people and employers.
• Inclusive Growth: Housing as a driver of economic and social opportunity.
• Housing quality and Sustainability: Low-carbon housing, retrofit programmes, and securing investment to bring Devon’s houses up to decent homes standard.
• Community Empowerment: Support for CLTs and local housing initiatives.
• Housing embedded in all policy areas: Housing as part of integrated health and care systems, passenger transport, education and skills and employment. High quality, affordable homes, connected to employment and skills opportunities are critical to individual wellbeing and prosperity, and provide the secure foundation that is needed to succeed in our local economy.

Our DTCCA Local Housing Plan is important to provide institutional resilience in the face of uncertainty over the next few years. It will ensure that work continues to deliver the Devon Housing Commission recommendations, we are in the best position to access government funding and demonstrates that Devon and Torbay are competent and reliable partners with a plan for delivering the homes that are needed. This reflects DTCCA’s core pillars: building competence, building trust and building relationships. 

The Devon and Torbay Housing Advisory Group will provide advice to the DTCCA Board on housing issues particularly where they interact with other policy areas that the Authority is involved in. The group will also provide the monitoring and oversight on our delivery of our priorities, ensuring that all of our housing authorities and sector partners are empowered to contribute and shape the work. 

Producing a Devon and Torbay Housing Strategy 

The Devon Housing Commission was clear that a DTCCA-wide housing strategy should be produced. This offers significant value by enabling coordinated, place-based planning across diverse communities, aligning housing delivery and other demand responsive initiatives with broader economic, infrastructure, and social goals.  

The geography of Devon and Torbay is large and diverse, and our strategy will take into account the challenges presented by an ageing population, rural remoteness, coastal deprivation and above all a need for more affordable housing for local people. 

All of the local housing authorities in the DTCCA area are working hard to deliver their housing priorities and ease some of the specific issues that they face. In some cases, the work is similar, in some it is different.   

A unified strategy, recognising diversity, allows for better use of devolved powers, such as regional spatial planning, infrastructure coordination, and funding allocation, ensuring that housing growth supports workforce retention, regeneration, and net zero ambitions. It also strengthens the region’s voice in national policy discussions and funding negotiations, making the case for tailored interventions based on shared priorities and evidence. 

Importantly a joint strategy will allow us to build further on the close working relationship formed with Homes England, putting the DTCCA in the strongest possible position to access government funding. It will also provide a clear, understandable direction to build confidence with the private sector and housing providers, demonstrating that the area is ready for investment.  

Our work building a strategic housing pipeline with Homes England across the DTCCA is the foundation to this: a housing strategy will act as a delivery plan for these strategic sites as well as detailing approaches for a broad landscape of delivery options, including rural, community led, temporary accommodation and supported housing, alongside mainstream general needs social housing products. 

Producing a Devon and Torbay Spatial Development Strategy 

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will require Strategic Authorities (such as the DTCCA), to prepare Spatial Development Strategies (SDSs) as part of a broader shift toward more strategic, regionally coordinated planning.  

This requirement outlines SDSs as essential tools for aligning housing, infrastructure, and economic development across administrative boundaries. SDSs must include strategic policies for land use, housing distribution, and infrastructure of regional importance, and they must demonstrate how they contribute to climate change mitigation and environmental recovery 

The Government’s English Devolution White Paper further emphasises that SDSs are central to delivering national priorities by empowering local leaders to plan at a scale that transcends individual local authority boundaries.  

These strategies are intended to ensure that development is not only more efficient and sustainable but also better aligned with regional economic ambitions and workforce needs. The requirement reflects a growing recognition that fragmented local plans may be insufficient to tackle  complex, cross-boundary challenges like housing affordability, infrastructure deficits, and climate resilience.  

The Housing Strategy and the Spatial Development Strategy will sit over the rest of our work on housing and planning and be flexible enough to cope with evolving local government reorganisation whilst providing the necessary structure to keep moving forward with delivering the homes Devon and Torbay need. 

Our Delivery Framework 

The delivery framework for our housing plan is as follows: (number in brackets refers to relevant Devon Housing Commission Recommendation)

Governance and oversight