Council revisits '100 per cent affordable' housing scheme

Councillors in Exeter are ready to hand over a key piece of land to developers planning nearly 100 new ‘affordable’ homes on green fields on the outskirts of the city.

A year ago the city council refused to sell land it owns off Pendragon Road in the Beacon Heath area, without which the development cannot go ahead. A court hearing next month will consider if that decision was taken legally.

But now new developers have pledged that every home built on the fields will be affordable – and now the council is ready to say yes, and sell the land for access for around £1 million.

A special meeting of the council’s executive committee will discuss the plan next Thursday, with a recommendation to ‘revisit’ the decision made last July.

A report for the meeting says the council’s strip of ‘amenity land’ is the only way of accessing the building site. Planning permissions have already been granted, after an appeal, but work cannot start unless the council agrees to part with the key piece of land.

Local housing association LiveWest has now come forward with a 100 per cent affordable homes scheme.

The report says it is “a scenario that would demonstrate the council working positively with local, regional and national partners to meet local affordable housing need.”