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04
Feb
Affordable housing to be cut at three major Harrogate housing sites
The number of affordable homes on three major housing sites in Harrogate look set to be reduced amid concern over rising infrastructure costs.
Councillors on North Yorkshire Council’s strategic planning committee will consider reducing the affordable housing requirement on sites at Whinney Lane, Lady Lane and Beckwith Head Road.
Council officers said the move will help to deliver the schemes and meet newly imposed housing targets.
The sites, which have already received outline planning permission, amount to 1,184 houses and form a major part of a housebuilding drive in the west of Harrogate.
They include:
- 224 homes on Whinney Lane
- 480 homes on Whinney Lane and Lady Lane
- 480 homes off Otley Road and Beckwith Head Road
According to a council report, the affordable housing requirement for the three sites would be reduced from 40% to 35%.
It would mean that the total number of homes classed as affordable across the schemes would fall from 473 to 415.
Sites earmarked for housing in the West of Harrogate.
The changes comes as the council commissioned Leeds-based property consultants, Aspinall Verdi, to carry out a viability review of the three sites.
Alex Robinson, delivery and infrastructure officer at the council, said in a report that the review was carried out after applicants and council officers became increasingly concerned that the burden of infrastructure costs “would stall the delivery of the sites”.
He added that the assessment of the sites found that reducing the requirement was “appropriate and necessary”.
Mr Robinson said:
Officers have been mindful of the significant infrastructure costs associated with bringing forward these strategic sites at West Harrogate.
The council commissioned a viability exercise to test the deliverability of the sites set against agreed infrastructure costs, changes in economic cost factors and national planning guidance.
This evidence has been assessed by offices from across the council (planning, delivery and housing) and a reduction in the affordable housing requirements for the West Harrogate applications is deemed reasonable, appropriate and necessary to assist housing delivery.
Councillors will make a decision on the changes at a strategic planning committee meeting on February 11.
It comes as up to 4,000 homes are being built or awaiting planning permission in the west of Harrogate, including schemes on Otley Road, Whinney Lane and Yew Tree Lane.
Much of the housing was earmarked for the area in the Harrogate District Local Plan, which assessed a need for 16,077 new homes in the district up to 2035.
However, the council is now under increased pressure to deliver more housing amid the Labour government’s housebuilding drive.
The reforms come at a time when the council is also drawing up a new Local Plan. Richard Flinton, chief executive of the council, claimed the hike in housing targets without a plan could leave the authority susceptible to "speculative" schemes.
As a result of the government’s changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, North Yorkshire’s housing need has increased to 4,077 a year — it had previously been 1,361.
Mr Robinson said in his report that the changes to affordable housing for the three sites in the west of Harrogate would help to deliver the schemes and meet this demand.
He said:
Officers have assessed the proposed condition changes against the policies in the local plan and national planning policy and have found the submitted details to be acceptable.
The proposed development will make a valuable contribution to meeting housing need, the government’s requirements of which have increased significantly for North Yorkshire since the publication of the revised National Planning Policy Framework in December 2024.
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