Developer backtracks on affordable housing pledge

The homes are planned for Allithwaite in Cumbria

A developer has lodged a bid to remove a legal requirement to provide affordable homes on its latest project.

L&W Wilson (Higham) Ltd was granted outline planning permission by Westmorland and Furness Council in 2024 to build a number of two-to-four bedroom properties at Barn Hey, off Flookburgh Road in Allithwaite, Cumbria.

However, planning documents submitted by the developer this month said the provision of 12 affordable homes on the four-acre (1.6-hectare) site was now "financially unviable".

Objectors to the move said the area was in "desperate need" of social and affordable housing, adding it was vital in order to create a "thriving community".

Westmorland and Furness Council has been contacted for comment

The firm's planning statement stated that since outline planning permission was granted, it had "encountered significant and unforeseen site abnormalities that have materially impacted the financial viability of the development".

Coupled with "extended interest costs", the developer said "imposing unachievable financial burdens" through the legally binding obligation known as a Section 106 agreement would "delay or potentially prevent" construction.

Last October, it was reported that Westmorland and Furness had some of the "least affordable housing" outside the south-east of Engand, with average property prices being seven times higher than the average household income.

One person opposing the removal of the requirement said Allithwaite was in "desperate need" of social and affordable housing, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The objection read: "Young people find it difficult to find rental accommodation and to get on to the housing ladder, which results in young people leaving the village.

"A thriving community needs good quality social and affordable housing, it allows people to put down roots and contribute to the local economy and community."

The application is undergoing public consultation.