Affordable housing changes for Lawley to be reconsidered
A proposed reduction in the number of affordable houses on a major development will go back before councillors next week because they were given “untrue” information last time they voted.
The Lawley Village Developer Group’s bid to remove the 12 per cent provision from a 187-home site was approved by the Telford and Wrekin Council Planning Committee in June.
Members admitted they were reluctant at the time, with Councillor Veronica Fletcher saying they had to accept legal advice but she thought it was “not right”, and Councillor Peter Scott saying the committee had its “hands tied”.
A report by borough planning officers says the reconvened committee will have to vote again on Wednesday, August 25, as information presented to it two months ago was “not a true reflection”.
Neither that report, nor minutes of the June meeting, specify what the error was.
“This deed of variation was previously presented to Planning Committee, dated June 30, whereby members resolved to grant the deed of variation,” it says.
“In dialogue since that resolution, and through no fault of the developer, Taylor Wimpey, it is apparent that the information presented to Planning Committee at that time was not a true reflection.”
Aside from that paragraph, the document is largely identical to the June report.
It notes that the wider Lawley Village Sustainable Urban Extension, consisting of 3,300 homes and other facilities, won outline permission in 2005 and has been approved then built in phases since then.
An agreement at the time “secured the obligation of the developer to provide 25 per cent of the dwellings as affordable housing”, the report says.
“Phase 10”, comprising 187 homes – 23 affordable – between West Centre Way and Station Road, Dawley Bank, was given full approval in 2019.
“Since the economic downturn, the developers have sought to reduce the amount of affordable housing on various phases as they have been brought forward,” the report says, adding that reductions to 15, 12.5 and 10 per cent have been allowed.
It says the LVDG has provided a viability appraisal, which has been verified for the council by independent consultants.
This, the report says, “proves the development is unviable” and “the applicant is, therefore, seeking members’ approval to remove the obligation to provide affordable housing on phase 10”.
The report recommends councillors grant the change, and notes that, while this would remove the applicant’s affordable housing obligation under the planning process, the homes could still be provided by other means. It says the LVDG and Wrekin Housing Group are in discussions, with an “indicative offer for 19 affordable dwellings”, but this is dependent on grant funding being available.
