A cloud of uncertainty is hanging over the amount of affordable housing that will be built on a huge estate where it was initially hoped hundreds of homes below market price would be created.
An officers’ report to Hambleton District Council’s planning committee over Taylor Wimpey’s plans for 226 homes across 6.8 hectares and Persimmon’s plans for 246 homes across 17.34 hectares at the 900-home North Northallerton development states the schemes should be approved, despite there being no decision on the amount of affordable housing they will include.
Last year, housing association Broadacres confirmed it had just under 1,000 people on its waiting list.
The North Northallerton phase two proposals follow members of the local authority repeatedly voicing frustration over the amount of affordable housing, which is less profitable than homes offered on the open market, being built in the district.
Councillors have pointed towards a loophole where after being given planning consent developers can claim the requisite number of below market value properties would make their schemes unviable, due to costs such as clearing contamination or building roads.
The Tory-run authority’s leaders have called for a stringent Government policy to stop developers using unforeseen costs as a reason for building estates with less than its targets of 40 or 50 per cent affordable housing.
While numerous developments in the district have seen affordable housing proportions drop in recent years, in 2017 North Northallerton developer Taylor Wimpey was allowed by the council to cut all 246 affordable homes from its 640-home estate at Sowerby Gateway, near Thirsk. Taylor Wimpey said unexpected costs would otherwise make the development unviable.
Original outline planning permission for phase three of the Sowerby Gateway development, near Thirsk, set targets of 246 affordable homes out of 640 houses.
The officers’ report states while the council policy is for 40 per cent affordable housing, initial assessments had concluded the planned North Northallerton developments off the A167 Darlington Road should only feature a 13.4 per cent affordable housing, partly due to developers’ contributing to a congestion-busting link road and bridge.
The report states when planning permission was granted for the estate four years ago a caveat was built into the consent to allow for a review of the amount of affordable housing.
It states: “This caveat allowed for the affordable housing quotient to go down as well as up in order to ensure that the development remained viable and the crucial infrastructure elements of the project including the school and the link road would be delivered.”
The report states during the building of 300 homes in North Northallerton phase one the developer asked the council to “roll the affordable housing quotient for phase one into phase two owing to viability issues with the phase one development”.
It adds: “The council requested a viability appraisal in order to justify this. Since that time a number of other matters have impacted on viability including a reduction in the overall number of dwellings owing to a reduction in the developable area assumed at the time of the original viability assessment and a significant increase in building costs.”
Following viability studies, officers said while there remains “a certain amount of uncertainty about the later stages of development”, there was consensus the first phase of the development would not provide any affordable housing.
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