A GROUP committed to ­protecting the South Hams' countryside has called for the local authority to use money it receives when new homes are built to pay for affordable housing.

Peter Coates, chairman of the Plymouth and South Hams branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, thinks the 'new homes bonus' paid by the Government to South Hams Council should be ringfenced to provide cheaper homes and social housing.

For each new home built, the Government pays the ­district council the equivalent of the property's council tax bill for six years. The cash is intended as an incentive for councils to build more houses and as a sweetener for the communities that have to put up with them.

Councils are free to decide how the money is spent, and South Hams Council currently puts less than half of the money back into housing: in 2013-14 it received £1,026,018, but spent just £460,000 on ­capital housing projects.

Mr Coates said: 'The CPRE has always been concerned with whether there's enough affordable housing, and we feel the new homes bonus should be ringfenced and spent only on building more affordable homes.

'We're worried that the money is just going straight back into the running of the council.'

Mr Coates also talked about wider housing issues in the South Hams, referring to the recent K5 appeal. While the planning inspector upheld the council's decision to refuse permission for an expanded development on West Alvington Hill, he recognised South Hams' failure to adhere to government rules on land supply.

Mr Coates continued: 'More generally, the CPRE is also worried about the number of houses that need to be built.

'We note that the council recently had costs awarded against it as it couldn't demonstrate enough land supply to satisfy the five-year need.

'The current housing needs assessment – a desktop exercise carried out by a company in Manchester estimates that between 3,000 and 10,000 houses will need to be built by 2031.

'I've heard a rumour that they're thinking 7,000 will be the number, which is quite an increase on the 40,000 or so houses in the South Hams at the moment.

'Transport infrastructure in the South Hams is difficult, and we're also concerned that there aren't enough jobs for all the people who will live in these new houses.'

A spokesman for the district council said: 'South Hams Council has not yet agreed its level of future housing need. A motion was raised at the last full council meeting about Our Plan and the future housing numbers, and members agreed to set up a working group to look at the figures.

'The motion read: "Under new legislation, local planning authorities are now responsible for setting the number of ­houses to be built in their area per annum. To date, South Hams District Council has not set this number. Therefore, a joint member and officer group will be convened to examine and analyse the issue of house-building numbers in the South Hams, so that members of the public can see how the level of housebuilding in the South Hams has been calculated."'