Social housing for Cotswold town gets the go ahead

Stow-on-the-Wold is a popular tourist destination but housing is costly and scarce.

A new 37-home estate has been given the go ahead in a Cotswold town.

Some 2.2 hectares of agricultural land north of Oddington Road in Stow-on-the-Wold will be built on.

The company Bayhill Property Limited are planning on developing the site.

Twenty five of the homes will be for social rent and with 12 being shared ownership, reverting to social rent if they don’t sell within a set period of time.

A proposal for affordable homes at the site next to the King George’s Field was approved by Cotswold District Council last December but a a section 106 legal agreement had to be secured.

Such agreements are made between a local planning authority and a developer, so measures to reduce the impact of development on the local community can be discussed.

Ward councillor Dilys Neill spoke at the meeting and told the committee that Stow has less social housing now than it did 50 years ago.

"There are many families who have left Stow because they cannot afford to live there,” she said.

“So we need social housing. Census data shows a rapid decline in the number of young people living in Stow. This is potentially affecting the viability of our excellent primary school which has space for 140 children but has just 100 on roll.”

Councillor Gary Selwyn said he supported the scheme when it first came to the committee and was even happier with the increase in social rented homes.

The committee voted unanimously to approve the scheme.