Firm is accused of using loophole to build below standard homes
ADEVELOPER has been accused of exploiting a loophole after putting forward plans for homes which do not meet national standards.
Controversial proposals for 325 new houses on green belt land owned by Seashell Trust were granted on appeal after initially being refused by Stockport council.
The development - off Wilmslow Road, in Heald Green - will partfund the special school’s plans for a multi-million pound revamp of its ageing campus.
But councillors have raised serious concerns after it emerged that more than half the houses will not meet nationally prescribed minimum space standards.
While permission for the scheme has been granted by the secretary of state, ‘reserved matters’ - including layout, scale and access - still need to be passed by the town hall.
Bloor Homes, which is building the new houses, has submitted detailed plans for 202 properties that make up the first phase of the development.
However a report that went to Cheadle area committee confirmed that none of the proposed two and threebedroom homes - some 105 properties - met national minimum standards for internal space.
Senior planning officer Daniel Hewitt told the meeting these could only be enforced by the council if they were included in its local plan.
And as Stockport does not have an up-to-date local plan it could not insist on compliance from developers.
Kate McClean, planning director at Bloor Homes, was challenged by Coun Adrian Nottingham, who asked why the company was proposing to build homes that fell below minimum space standards..
Ms Mclean told the meeting that 100pc of the properties satisfied a separate metric known as the Housing Quality Indicator (HQI).
She said: “The policy position isn’t quite there yet until Stockport adopts a local plan. We set about developing a scheme that maximises coverage to ensure the land receipt to Seashell Trust is sufficient for them to progress with their transformation project.”
She added that more homes on this site meant less pressure on other greenfield land across the borough.
There will also be 57 affordable homes included in the development - and Ms McClean pointed to the explicit support of provider Mosscare St Vincents highlighted in the officer’s report.
But councillors were deeply concerned that this allowed the developer to ‘get away’ with less than minimum standards.
Councillor Nottingham said it seemed the developer was exploiting a loophole opened up by the absence of an up-todate local plan.
He said: “It would appear that, if I’m taking a negative view, Bloor Homes are using that to build houses that are below a national minimum standard, because Stockport council right now lacks a local plan.
“That’s countered by this line that it’s all about Seashell Trust and that development - I think that’s just no a good argument.”
He added: “Yes we want Seashell Trust to have excellent facilities but we don’t want other people to pay for that by living in housing that is not of minimum standards.”
Stockport council voted to pull out of the region’s joint Greater Manchester Spatial Framework development strategy last year.
It now has until December 2023 to update its local plan which will require it to build more than 20,000 new homes by 2038.
Coun David Meller said the issue further illustrates why the borough ‘desperately needs a local plan as soon as possible’.
“Just because we have no local plan doesn’t mean we should accept the lowest common denominator as far as housing quality is concerned,” he added.
Despite being asked to recommend the application for approval by the highways and planning committee, councillors declined to do so.
Instead they resolved to make no recommendation but for their comments and concerns to be passed on.
The area committee’s feelings were summed up by chair Coun Anna Charles-Jones as the debate drew to a close.
She said: “I think it’s exceptionally disappointing that we are losing this precious green belt and what we are now being presented with is a development that doesn’t even meet some fairly basic minimum standards for a good quality development.
“I think that’s the least we could have expected was a really good quality development on a really precious piece of land.”
Cheadle area committee met on Tuesday, April 20.
Stockport council’s planning and highways committee will decide whether to grant planning permission when it meets on Thursday (April 29).