A proposal to build an estate featuring affordable housing in open countryside has been recommended for approval, despite planning officers concluding their target for affordable house building has been met.
North Yorkshire Council’s Richmond constituency planning committee will consider Mulberry Homes Yorkshire’s scheme for 53 affordable homes, including eight one-bedroom properties, on grazing farmland to the west of Ainderby Road, Romanby, Northallerton.
To protect the countryside, the Local Plan stipulates developments will only be supported, as an exception, when schemes featuring 100 per cent affordable housing are proposed.
In planning documents submitted to the local authority, Mulberry Homes states its overarching vision for the site is to provide a good quality, locally distinctive residential development that includes a good mix of housing and helps to meet “a shortage of affordable homes within Northallerton”.
The firm has argued there is an overriding requirement for the council to address any backlogs in affordable housing delivery as soon as possible, siting an appeal case at Back Lane, Sowerby in support of this approach.
The planning documents claim the area is experiencing “an ongoing and persistent housing affordability crisis”, reinforcing the need to deliver affordable housing now, with some 1,166 active applications in the former Hambleton authority area, with over half the households wanting to live in the
Northallerton area.
They also point towards the average house price in Hambleton being £80,000 more than the regional average in 2021.
However, scores of residents and Romanby Parish Council have objected to the scheme, highlighting that the site was not allocated for any form of development in the Local Plan blueprint for the area, which was only adopted last year.
Residents have raised doubts over whether services for the village would be able to cope with the increase in homes.
A parish spokesman wrote: “We have been closely involved in the consultation work for the new Local Plan, which clearly articulates that there is ample housing stock planned and allocated for the years ahead (out to 2035) in the Northallerton/Romanby area, without any further new builds being necessary.
“We have taken the opportunity to consult with our residents over this proposal; of the responses received, 94 per cent are against any development of the land in question.”
A planning officer’s report to the committee they concluded there was no affordable housing backlog in the area as 654 affordable homes were completed from 2016 to 2021, some 19 units above the 635 affordable homes the firm had claimed were required.
Nevertheless, the report concludes the provision of affordable housing along with the provision of eight single bedroom homes should be given considerable weight by councillors when making a decision as it would help to address affordability issues in the housing market.
The report concludes: “It is well established that housing targets (including those for affordable housing) are not intended to be a ceiling to prevent additional units from being built beyond the stated targets, and there are benefits to providing affordable housing provision within residential schemes, not least to seek to mitigate the current affordability issues…”
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