Developers have secured permission to dramatically cut the proportion of affordable housing they build on an estate after telling councillors they wanted to make several million pounds more profit.
A meeting of Hambleton District Council’s planning committee heard the authority had rejected a scheme to build a 224-home estate across fields off Tanton Road, Stokesley, despite it featuring 50 per cent affordable homes, before it was approved at a public inquiry in 2015 partly due to the amount of much-needed affordable housing it would provide.
However, councillors were told while the site had proved extremely problematic to develop and building costs had risen significantly, if affordable housing on the site was cut to 30 per cent, profits for developer Tilia Homes would rise from 2.4 per cent to 9.8 per cent, equal to a £3.4m rise in profits.
The meeting heard the council had employed consultants Lichfields to review the scheme’s viability, and the study had concluded the developer’s request to cut the amount of affordable housing was justified, adding a realistic return for a housing developer was above 15 per cent.
A Stokesley Town Council spokesman questioned both the quality and findings of the viability report, saying it focused on solely on rising construction costs and ignored the obvious need to consider that house prices in the area had soared at a faster rate.
The meeting heard claims the developers’ profits were likely to be far in excess of 9.8 per cent and the application to cut affordable housing was being considered just weeks after the council lowered its affordable housing target for the area from 50 per cent to 30 per cent.
Objector and mortgage advisor Christopher Johnson told the meeting prices for three-bedroom semi-detached homes in Stokesley had risen by £50,000 in just three months.
He said: “It’s just getting further and further away from people who want to stay in these towns.
“If you go back down to 30 per cent eventually the towns will be ruined because there will be nobody to work in the doctors, there will be nobody working in the shops, nobody working in the restaurants, no one to work in the care homes.
“If you don’t provide affordable houses for those workers, Hambleton council, North Yorkshire council, you are building a big problem for the future. This is a great opportunity to stick at the 50 per cent and help the average person and people in Hambleton.”
An agent for the developer responded saying it was “unfair to tarnish the name” of the consultants with the concerns over the quality of their work, and heralded Lichfields as a very well respected firm.
He said: “The change resulting in a 9.8 per cent return remains well below the accepted benchmark.”
Calling for the affordable housing cut to be refused, Stokesley councillor Bryn Griffiths said when the scheme had been approved it had raised expectations for many residents desperate for housing in the area.
He said providing 45 fewer affordable homes for locals on the estate was “an unacceptable reduction”.
Nevertheless, other councillors said they sympathised with the developers over the difficulties and extra costs of building on the site and welcomed the offer to build five bungalows on the estate.
Ahead of the affordable housing cut being passed, Councillor Bridget Fortune said the proposal represented a positive outcome from “a horrible debacle” and it was remiss of objectors to “start drubbing a professional body if they are not in the same field themselves”.
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