Simon I would tend to the view that since there is no legislation in place yet nor has the govenment actually changed NPPF/G things are a little uncertain other than the direction of travel. I would guess though that developers will be rubbing their hands all the way to the bank if starter homes are defined as affordable and authorities can no longer require social rented housing at far larger discounts than 20%. Add to that not having to have poor people on their schemes! Social housing is provided at a loss to the developer, starter homes may well make them profit especially as developers will no longer have to pay S106 or CIL contributions too. I am unclear what will happen in areas where removing S106/CIL do not provide the 20% discount from market value...and where policies are already subject to viability concerns. I have seen no evidence that there is a market for huge numbers of starter homes anyway and even at a discount of 20% they are not affordable. Add this to the ever lengthening list of unevidenced and purely political planning changes and we will just have to wait and see how the market responds. Of course this is also predicated on cheap land...but land values could rise accordingly.
