Affordable housing estate in Preston approved

An estate made up entirely of affordable homes is to be built on the outskirts of Preston.

The 48 properties, off Lightfoot Lane – close to the junction with Tabley Lane – will range from one-bedroomed flats to four-bed houses.

They will all be offered for either affordable rent – making them at least 20 percent cheaper than local market rates – or shared ownership.

The proposal for the plot was given the go-ahead by Preston City Council’s planning committee, but was put under the microscope by one member unhappy that the development would not create the kind of mixed community envisaged in local planning guidance.

The site is part of a wider parcel of land for which approval was previously granted to housebuilder Redrow for 330 homes, the majority of which have now been completed.  However, the remaining section has now been brought forward by Breck Homes for a 100 percent affordable housing scheme.

Committee member Daniel Guise noted that the nature of the scheme meant it was “impossible” to weave in affordable housing with full market value properties in what is known in planning jargon as “pepper-potting”.   The idea of that arrangement, according to a 2012 planning strategy for Central Lancashire, is to “promote integration…and minimise social exclusion”.

However, Bill Fuster, the agent for the application, said the Lightfoot Lane site was an opportunity to “over-provide” affordable housing against the 30 percent proportion that would usually be required on such an estate.

Town hall planning officer Jonathan Evans added that there was a “significant need” for affordable dwellings in Preston.

“I’d argue that the need…outweighed any harm in terms of it not being pepper-potted,” Mr. Evans said.  He told the committee that the pepper-potting policy had been aimed at “developers [that] like to shove all the affordable housing in one corner” of a wider estate.

A provisional agreement is in place for the properties to be managed by Community Gateway Association, which has secured Homes England funding to facilitate the development.

The site will be accessed from a new junction on Lightfoot Lane – not via the roundabout at Tabley Lane, as originally intended.  However, the savings from that move mean the developer will be able to fund the outstanding cost of a long-planned ‘toucan’ crossing on Tom Benson Way – only half of the cash for which has been secured from Redrow as part of the construction of its portion of the plot.