Race against time for Somerset council to use housing funds

The Staplegrove project is one of three developments that will deliver the bulk of Taunton's new housing over the next two decades

A council has been given until March 2024 to spend millions of pounds unlocking more than 1,600 homes.

Plans for the houses, employment land and a new primary school in Staplegrove, Taunton, were first given the go-ahead in October 2017.

The government provided more than £14m in March 2019 to deliver the development, but it was held up after concerns about phosphate levels.

The new Somerset Council now has until 31 March 2024 to spend that funding.

The Staplegrove urban extension will eventually deliver 1,628 new homes on land between the A358 Pen Elm and Taunton Road at the north-western edge of the county town.

An update on the development came before the council's climate and place scrutiny committee on Wednesday.

The project is split into two elements - Staplegrove West, which comprises 713 homes and employment land, and Staplegrove East, consisting of 915 homes and a new primary school.

An artist's impression of the new primary school within the Staplegrove Urban Extension In Taunton

Bloor Homes South West formally secured outline planning permission for Staplegrove West in 2019, and has agreed a phosphate mitigation solution with the council.

The committee heard the first 250 homes within the Staplegrove West site can be unlocked by re-routing existing overhead power cables underground, with the remaining 463 homes being delivered once the new junction with the A358 and part of the spine road have been constructed.

Staplegrove East has not yet secured a developer, and the plans will have to come back before the council's planning committee once a phosphates solution has been agreed.

Jenny Clifford, the council's Taunton Garden Town implementation manager, said there had been "considerable development interest" in the Staplegrove East site, but could not elaborate further due to ongoing commercial negotiations.

'Get developers started'

The money from the government's housing infrastructure fund will be loaned to the developers to allow elements of infrastructure to be delivered before the new deadline of 31 March 2024.

The council will get to claim the money back with interest, and spend the recovered funding on unlocking further housing in and around the site.

Councillor Dixie Darch said: "Losing this funding because of the phosphates would have been a tragedy.

"It's not an ideal situation, but it's the next best thing because we can secure the land for the primary school and it allows the developers to get started."