Members of the Barrow in Furness local area planning committee refused an application from Harry Barker Properties to remove the requirement to provide four affordable housing units on the site opposite Greenhill Ponds off Greystones Lane.
The committee has voted against planning officers’ recommendations to grant permission three times and has refused all applications to lower the number of affordable homes on the site.
According to the Furness-based developer the removal of the affordable homes is necessary to ‘safeguard the business’.
Councillor Les Hall (Hawcoat and Newbarns, Conservative) told committee members he ‘totally’ opposes the application from the developer and said ‘nothing has changed’ since the previous decision.
Cllr Hall added: “I get building costs may have gone up but I imagine house prices have gone up as well.”
Councillor Frank Cassidy (Walney Island, Labour) said: “I think we owe it to our young people to build affordable housing, not housing our young people cannot afford.”
In a planning consultation, Dalton with Newton Town Council said it ‘strongly’ urged planners to reject this application.
Dalton with Newton Town Council’s response to the plans reads: “Affordable housing is a crucial part of sustainable community development, ensuring that local people, particularly those on lower incomes, have access to suitable housing.
“The removal of this requirement would have several negative consequences.”
A report prepared for the committee meeting said given the legal obligation was less than five years old, it could only be modified with the agreement of the council.
However, this application was submitted over five years after the legal obligation was entered into therefore according to the report if councillors refused the application, there is a right of appeal.
In October 2019 an outline planning application to construct up to 36 homes on the site was approved by the then Barrow Borough Council.
According to planning documents as work began it became apparent that ‘abnormal costs’ related to adverse ground conditions and associated increase in construction costs ‘brought into question’ the viability of the project.
Plans state the profit margin for the development with the affordable homes is less than five per cent with a typical developer profit being around 18 per cent.
A supporting statement submitted by the developer reads: “To safeguard the business, as well as achieving the wider social and environmental benefits of achieving occupation and use of the whole development, the applicant has had no option but to submit a further application to modify the existing 106 agreement.”
A report prepared by council planning officers said the applicant had demonstrated it is ‘not financially viable’ to build the agreed affordable housing units and this has been peer reviewed and verified by a specialist consultancy on behalf of the council.
The supporting statement adds: “HBP recognise that the provision of affordable housing is an important planning objective at a national and local level and it has been with great reluctance that circumstances have forced the company to submit the previous and current applications.”
Members of Barrow in Furness local area planning committee refused the application on April 1.