A housing developer has been told it can’t get away with building no affordable homes whatsoever on a development of 60 homes in Weston.
Seagate Homes was granted planning permission in 2016 to build the homes of which 20 was due to be affordable off Dean Close and Small Drove.
The developer successfully lobbied South Holland District Council in March to reduce the number of affordable homes from 33 per cent to 25 per cent.
Then last month it submitted a second application to build entirely market homes on the site with no affordable homes at all.
Planning officers have though refused the application.
Seagate’s said in submissions to the council that the application was “due to not being able to obtain any interest in present form. A registered provider came forward but was rejected by South Holland District Council.
The submission continues that there’s “no interest in this location” and continued: “In addition COVID-19 has impacted on the site and we want to deliver market housing.”
The application was refused.
Case officer Lucy Buttery’s report states: “Given the development has not yet started there is a considerable time period until the trigger points relating to affordable housing in the s106 agreement are met and thus the application seems premature.
“The council’s enabling service can work with the developer to provide a solution, with the removal of the on-site contribution as a last resort
“Three alternatives are proposed: 1) Strategic Housing to seek to identify a provider partner; 2) If no partner can be identified, modify the tenure mix in the S106 agreement; 3) Seek a commuted sum in lieu of on-site affordable housing in the event that neither of the aforementioned alternatives are successful.”
