Large Developer Chooses Penalty Rather Than Affordable Homes.

It is common practice these days whereby developers have to allocate a certain number of homes within their proposed developments for affordable homes. However a major row has erupted in Rutland after a developer has decided not to honour this and instead has chosen to pay the council.

The developer, David Wilson Homes, has opted instead to pay Rutland County Council a fee of £825,000 in regards to The Firs development. The scheme, located off Ayston Road in Uppingham, would have seen 38 affordable homes being built there if the developer had opted to go down this route.

In Rutland it is expected that builders erecting more than 14 homes have to provide 20% towards affordable homes. Normally the 20% of affordable homes would then be sold to a housing association for a capped price.

In this case the planning permission dating back to 2001 stated that if the developer did not meet the affordable housing needs then they would have to pay a penalty of £825,000. Many thought that this penalty price was enough to ensure that the homes did get built.

However Rutland has witnessed huge increases in property prices and so this may have swayed the developer into taking the penalty rather than building the homes. David Wilson Homes did not accept the top price that the housing association could pay for the homes and therefore had to face the penalty. The prices of the homes at The Firs development for a five bedroom home is £310,000.

Back in July 2010 Uppington Town Council learnt the news that the affordable homes were not going to be built, councillors are all too aware of the need for affordable housing in the area and so it was a blow to the council. One councillor Robin Schlich spoke of the uproar if the money was not spent in Uppingham and would upset the calculations already made for the school places there. He also described the move as depriving families of the chance of living in Uppingham. The leader od Rutland County Council, Mr Roger Begy, vowed to make sure that the money was definitely invested into Uppingham for affordable homes. Rutland County Council will now have to look elsewhere with the help of its town councillors and local housing associations for potential sites.

David Wilson Homes defended itself to the local newspaper there by declaring that when they purchased the site with its outline planning permission there was a legal agreement incorporated within it which offered two options. Firstly to either provide the affordable homes or to pay money to Rutland council so that they could build affordable homes somewhere else. David Wilson Homes confirmed that on this occasion they chose the latter.
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