Maidenhead town centre flats approved despite 'ludicrous' lack of affordable homes

Councillors have approved a seven-storey block of flats behind the former Post Office building in Maidenhead High Street – despite concerns that no affordable housing would be offered.

Developer Sorbon Estates, part of the Shanly Group, sought outline planning permission to build 57 flats behind the historic red brick building at 110-114 High Street.

But no affordable housing is proposed within the scheme which seemed ‘ludicrous’ to Cox Green councillor Gary Reeves (Lib Dem).

“How can you not get any sort of affordable housing within 57 apartments? How many do you need to be able to do it?” he asked the extraordinary Maidenhead development management committee on Tuesday.

“Now we should only judge each application in its own right, but this is the second application we’ve had from this particular developer that has failed the affordability test.”

Councillor Helen Taylor (Ind, Oldfield) said it was ‘disappointing’, following recent large allocations in the Borough Local Plan with ‘a great mix of social, shared ownership and affordability’.

“How can we sit here and say we’re doing things for our residents when we know they need affordable housing?,” she added, saying only 182 units had been built in the past eight years.

“It gets so frustrating, it feels like we're putting a big sign up in the town centre saying ‘not here’,” she added.

Planning documents said it would be ‘unviable’ if the developer is required to provide the 30 per cent on-site affordable housing target required by the council, despite the ‘pressing need’ for it.

At the meeting, planning officers acknowledged the concern and requested ‘review mechanisms’ in the build process to identify any changes.

An affordable housing review will occur once 75 per cent of the homes are occupied to see if any affordable homes can be introduced.

“The authority would be at risk in relation to ignoring those viability arguments…if members were to refuse [due to] the lack of provision of affordable housing,” added the council’s legal officer Catriona Herbert.

In December 2020, Sorbon applied for a 13-storey block of 108 flats but revised the original plans with key differences including a ‘substantial reduction’ to the proposed building’s height.

Buildings at the rear of the old Post Office will be demolished for the new housing and two new commercial units at 106-108 High Street will also be built with 49 car parking spaces planned.

Objectors including Maidenhead Civic Society found fault in the development’s compatibility with the borough’s tall buildings policy, approved in 2023.

“What was the use of a tall building SPD (supplementary planning document) if you can say it’s of limited weight?” added Cllr Reeves.

“Try and tell all the residents that come down to the town centre or even drive towards Maidenhead or stand at Cliveden like I have done and see those tall buildings.”

Planning officers said ‘things have changed considerably’ due to borough-wide housing targets making the tall buildings document (SPD) ‘negligible’.

“The weight of the SPD would be negligible in so far as managing tall buildings when we’re nowhere near meeting our five-year supply. So the expectation would be that the only way we can meet our supply is to have denser, taller buildings,” said deputy head of planning Louise Reid.

The approved High Street development doesn’t have ‘a great element of conflict’ due to the tall adjacent BT tower, officers added.

Councillors all voted in favour of the officers’ recommendations, with one abstention from Councillor Mandy Brar (Lib Dem, Bisham and Cookham)

Some additional conditions to the motion proposed by Councillor Gurch Singh (Lib Dem, St Mary’s) and seconded by Councillor Jack Douglas (Lib Dem, St Mary’s) included changing the ‘limited’ trading hours of the new commercial units to Monday to Sunday from 7.30am to 9.30pm.

Updated Monday, January 20 at 1pm 

Early and late review mechanisms for affordable housing were outlined in officer recommendations before the extraordinary Maidenhead development management committee on Tuesday.

During the meeting, officers said if these were triggered and it became apparent that affordable dwellings were viable, they would not be introduced into the scheme. The developer would make a contribution to affordable units in another scheme.