It took six minutes to dismiss a bid to scrap the provision of affordable homes at a Dalton housing development.
Members of the Barrow in Furness local area planning committee refused an application from Harry Barker Properties to remove the requirement to provide four affordable homes on the site opposite Greenhill Ponds, off Greystones Lane.
It was the third time the firm had attempted to remove affordable housing from its new estate.
The Furness-based developer said the removal of the affordable homes was necessary to safeguard the business.
But the committee voted against planning officers’ recommendations to grant permission.
Councillor Les Hall (Hawcoat and Newbarns, Conservative) told committee members he totally opposed the application from the developer and said nothing had changed since the previous decision.
Cllr Hall added: “I get building costs may have gone up but I imagine house prices have gone up as well.”
Councillor Frank Cassidy (Walney Island, Labour) said: “I think we owe it to our young people to build affordable housing, not housing our young people cannot afford.”
In a planning consultation, Dalton with Newton Town Council said it strongly urged planners to reject the application.
It said: “Affordable housing is a crucial part of sustainable community development, ensuring that local people, particularly those on lower incomes, have access to suitable housing.
“The removal of this requirement would have several negative consequences.”
A report prepared for the committee meeting said given the legal obligation was less than five years old, it could only be modified with the agreement of the council.
However, this application was submitted over five years after the legal obligation was entered into – which meant the developer has the right to appeal the decision.
In October 2019 an outline planning application to build up to 36 homes on the site was approved by the then Barrow Borough Council.
The company said that as work began, it became apparent that abnormal costs related to adverse ground conditions and associated increase in construction costs brought into question the viability of the project.
It said the profit margin for the development with the affordable homes was less than five per cent – with a typical developer profit being around 18 per cent.
It added: “To safeguard the business, as well as achieving the wider social and environmental benefits of achieving occupation and use of the whole development, the applicant has had no option but to submit a further application to modify the existing agreement.
“HBP recognise that the provision of affordable housing is an important planning objective at a national and local level and it has been with great reluctance that circumstances have forced the company to submit the previous and current applications.”
Council planning officers said the firm had demonstrated it was not financially viable to build the agreed affordable housing and that it had been peer reviewed and verified by a specialist consultancy on behalf of the authority.
