Developer pushes to cancel affordable housing fund on Bray homes plan

A controversial plan for five homes in Bray has reared its head again despite already getting council approval – because it cannot offer the required affordable housing contribution.

Developers applied to turn Zaman House and Awan House in Church Road, The Fisheries, into five detached homes last year.

This raised concerns about over ‘urbanisation’ of the spacious site among those opposed, affecting its character.

It went to the council's Maidenhead development management committee in October and was approved – though not without qualms raised by the panel members.

Part of the sway of the decision related to the site’s long history. Previously, there was a bid to turn it into six semi-detached homes, which was also approved.

The October-debated application would have replaced that scheme.

Councillors felt, on balance, that the newer scheme would be ‘less dominant’ and had a better design, so ultimately approved it.

But despite having this approval in the bag, applicant Mr T Iqbal has resubmitted an application to turn this site into five homes. This is due to the thorny matter of affordable housing.

Though there are only a few units involved in the scheme, because it covers an area of 1,000sqft, this triggers the requirement for either affordable homes on site, or a financial contribution towards affordable homes elsewhere in the borough.

In the run-up to the proposal being considered by the panel, the applicant expressed a willingness to do this, according to council officers at the October committee meeting.

However, since then, the requirements of this contribution have proved challenging, it seems.

Representing Mr Iqbal, Maidenhead-based architecture firm St Edwards Design & Planning wrote:

“The council are currently seeking £647,765 for affordable housing contributions which is clearly a very substantial amount.

“The council have been unwilling to allow the applicant to consider the financial viability of this.”

In line with the advice received from Adrien Waite (RBWM’s assistant director of planning), the applicant is required to submit a new application accompanied by a Financial Viability Assessment (FVA).

This involves looking at whether the value generated by a development is more than the cost of developing it.

Financial viability is the only matter that will be considered under this new application, since the other matters have already been dealt with.

The FVA was completed by Affordable Housing 106 – a company that offers affordable housing viability reports to clients.

Affordable Housing 106 claims the FVA shows that affordable housing cannot be included in the scheme.

This is because the land value (after deducting development costs) is ‘significantly lower’ than the amount of money a landowner is ‘reasonably’ likely to accept to release a site for redevelopment.

“This indicates that it is unviable to provide any affordable housing contribution,” wrote Affordable Housing 106.

See this document and all others related to the scheme by entering reference 24/00186/FULL into Windsor and Maidenhead council’s online planning portal.