Plea to drop affordable housing at new stadium

The Power Court site is in the centre of Luton, near the main railway station

Planners are being advised to support a plea for affordable housing to be dropped from a football club's new stadium development plan.

A formal request was made by Luton Town's property arm 2020 Developments (Luton) Limited to remove this aspect of its legal obligations which it said was in order to make the new Power Court stadium project commercially viable.

Preparation work is already under way at the 21-acre brownfield site in the town centre which is due to be transformed by construction of a 25,000-capacity stadium and housing development.

Luton Borough Council's development management committee is due to consider the options on 20 August.

Luton Town have played at Kenilworth Road for 119 years. The existing stadium, which currently hosts League One matches after two successive relegations, has a capacity of 12,000.

Luton Town has said the new stadium would "reinvigorate" the club and the town centre

A letter asking for the variation of planning conditions was sent by professional services firm WSP to the council, reports the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

According to a report to the committee from planning officers "if the council opted not to accept this position, a possible outcome could be that residential development of 1,200 homes and the other elements of the regeneration project wouldn't come forward".

"This includes town centre uses, parking and other associated work, such as highways, landscaping and river works," the report said.

"The loss of affordable housing is unfortunate, but it's considered that there would be many wider benefits associated with the regeneration of the Power Court site."

Affordable housing obligations accounted for 20% of the total number of homes, said the letter from WSP.

WSP said that since 2022 it had been dealing with difficult market circumstances included "exponential increases" in the cost of labour and materials.

It said a financial viability assessment produced by Redloft, supported its submission and the "residential scheme is unviable with the current affordable housing provision".

Luton Town have played at Kenilworth Road for 119 years

The planning committee was being asked to remove the requirement for affordable housing and a clause monitoring progress around the transfer of affordable houses to a registered provider.

A further variation is to ensure [developer] "contributions are payable at the same time as the residential parcels or built development are delivered", added the report.