A housebuilder with permission to build 70 houses in Swindon has asked to be released from the obligation of building affordable homes.

Hannick Homes was given outline planning permission in late 2020 to build up to 70 houses on an irregularly shaped site south of Marlborough Road just to the west of the Great Western Hospital site.

As part of the consent, the company agreed to give Swindon Borough Council £45,000 to be used for the provision of offsite leisure facilities and £20,000 towards the making of a travel plan for the area as well as making 30 per cent of the houses and flats - 21 units - available as affordable homes, meaning for rent at no more than 80 per cent of market value.

 Now, a different builder, Lagan Homes, has taken over the site.

And it has asked for permission to reduce the number of affordable homes to nothing, saying it cannot afford to provide any.

The company has commissioned a report by specialist company CBRE and it has forwarded this to Swindon Borough Council planners and said: “The attached report by CBRE demonstrates that providing 30 per cent affordable housing and maintaining the other obligations would not be viable, as the outturn residual profit margin generated equates to just 6.65 per cent on Gross Development value

“CBRE subsequently ran a scenario test to assess the implications of financial viability of reducing the affordable housing provision which demonstrates that reducing the affordable provision to zero, whilst maintaining the financial contributions, will result in a GDV of 20 per cent.”

The company says: “The report clearly demonstrates that the development is unviable if we provide the full policy compliant level of affordable. That report was undertaken in August and clearly since then, the economic situation has changed for the worse.”

The letter says the time it took the company to get full planning permission on reserved matters was significant and that impacted on the viability of the scheme. The company also says: “The length of time taken to determine the application was well over the statutory period given for determining such applications.”

It concluded: “The report advises that the development is only viable with zero provision of affordable housing. Consequently, this application seeks to remove any such requirement to provide affordable housing from the planning obligation.”

An obligation to provide 30 per cent of large housing developments as affordable homes is standard in Swindon.