Bid to axe affordable homes from project rejected

A bid to remove affordable housing from plans for a development in Kent has been rejected.

Developers Silverleaf Group secured permission to build 44 apartments across two four-storey apartment blocks in Tunbridge Wells in March 2022.

Initially proposing no affordable homes, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council approved the plans, subject to including 14 affordable homes on the Upper Grosvenor Road site.

At a meetings of the council’s planning committee, a bid by Silverleaf to not include affordable homes was voted down. The developers said the project “would not be financially viable” if it included affordable homes.

While prices vary, affordable homes must be sold or rented for at least 20% below market value, or as part of a scheme, such as with starter homes.

However, financial assessment documents submitted by the developers revealed the firm would make 17.5% profit on gross development value for the 30 market rate homes and 6% for the affordable homes, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The application to provide no affordable homes received six letters of objection and was rejected with a unanimous vote.

A report by the council shows that there were 827 applications looking for council or social homes in the borough in April 2023.

Councillor Peter Lidstone said the borough was “in the middle of a housing crisis”.

“I didn’t think it was morally right for a developer to come in and remove the affordable housing element,” he said.

“I think the problem is that they’re not necessarily interested in benefiting the local community.”

Justin Owens, managing director of Silverleaf, said: “These delays will only result in the viability of the scheme being more challenging, as costs continue to rise while also delaying the delivery of vital homes.

“While I understand the contentious nature of this application, we have always maintained the site could not visibly provide affordable housing due to the site-specific constraints as can be seen from the original scheme submission.”

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