Historically, Braishfield had two groups of affordable housing (or “council housing” as it was known when it was built) – houses in Hillview Road and houses along the north side of Common Hill Road. Many of those properties became privately owned following the change in legislation in the 1980’s, so that by the late 1990’s the parish council started to debate whether there was a need for more affordable homes in Braishfield, particularly given the steep rise in property prices in the village.
A survey of the need for affordable housing in Braishfield was carried out in 2008. This resulted in Community Action Hampshire trying to identify a number of possible sites and 14 suggestions were put to Test Valley Borough Council planning department for comment. Most of these were rejected by TVBC and the parish council disliked the remainder. However the parish council suggested the site opposite the school and this became known as site 15.
One very important factor in the planning of affordable housing is the existence of a willing landowner and, as it happened, the landowner of the site opposite the School made himself known to the Parish Council and agreed to being contacted by Community Action Hampshire. An agreement was reached with the landowner which permitted consultation with the village to go ahead. A consultation session was held in the village hall on 14th September 2011 at which, amongst other things, four possible layout options for the site opposite the School were presented for comment.
Subsequent to this, the land opposite the School was withdrawn by the landowner due to the particular layout of housing favoured by the Parish Council (option 4 below). Eventually, another piece of land south of the Wheatsheaf PH was offered, owned by the same landowner. Two exhibitions were held in July and August 2013 and a village consultation carried out. Test Valley Borough Council also provided some information on housing need in the village. Another exhibition was held on 4th November 2013, based on revised proposals.
A planning application to build 9 affordable houses on the site south of the Wheatsheaf was submitted to TVBC by Hyde Housing (a housing association) on 10th December 2013 as application 13/02778/FULLS (Link to the planning application on the TVBC website). The initial design was rejected by TVBC, but Hyde Housing were asked to make amendments to the design and the amended application was approved by TVBC on 13th May 2014.
Construction commenced in the early 2015 and was completed with occupation by residents in November 2015.
7 houses are for rent and 2 houses are shared ownership. Tenants have to satisfy a requirement to have a connection to the village of Braishfield (for example, a family connection or employment within the village).