Borough of Poole granted planning permission for around 129 additional homes between 1st September and 20th October1.
The number of consented homes was significantly bolstered by the grant of outline consent for 56 new flats at West Quay Road – part of the Twin Sails Regeneration Area. This highlights the importance of the larger allocated sites. However it is important to stress that planning permissions do not translate into completions for a given year – indeed some of the consented schemes might not start for several years, and when they do they might be built out over a number of years; some might not be started at all. As the past 15 years have demonstrated, the delivery of complex brownfield sites within the Regeneration Area is far from assured and the construction programme and build-out rate for the West Quay Road scheme remain to be seen.
The vast majority (over 70%) of the homes consented between 1st September and 20th October will take the form of flats (principally 1 or 2 bed). The increase in the stock of family homes being tempered by subdivision and redevelopment. This aptly reflects the long-term trend within the established urban area.
Disappointingly, NO affordable housing was secured. Indeed, in one sense there was a net loss, as one of the ‘recycled’ sites benefitted from a planning permission which secured a financial contribution towards affordable housing. Owing to changes in Government Policy, such a requirement could not be sustained through the determination of the revised scheme. Of the two qualifying schemes (above the Government's threshold of 10 dwellings or 1,000sqm) affordable housing provision was discounted on viability grounds, either on account of existing use values or abnormal costs. This aptly demonstrates the challenge in delivering affordable homes. This is a situation we see playing out across the south coast, with many authorities embracing large greenfield sites, as the only means of delivering substantive numbers of affordable homes.
Canford Park would significant help to accelerate housing delivery in Poole, with a focus on new family homes, rather than flats. Crucially, 40% of the new homes at Canford Park will be affordable or aimed at first-time buyers – something rarely achieved within the existing urban area.
1 - This figure excludes the regularisation of established homes through certificates of lawfulness and includes a number of ‘recycled’ sites, where successive consents for residential development have been secured (thus the figures must be treated with a degree of caution). One further net additional home was allowed on appeal. An array of schemes were granted encompassing the formation of homes through change of use, garden plot severance, subdivision and redevelopment. A number of what might be termed ‘more ambitious’ proposals were either withdrawn or refused, highlighting the difficulties in identifying suitable, viable sites within the existing built-up area.