Housing developers warn of cash flow problems

There are enough sites to meet targets for thousands of new homes over the next five years in Torridge and North Devon but firms are struggling with cash flow to build them.

Land with planning consent for housing is being put on by developers as they need to sell other properties in a slow market, and housing providers are not coming forward to take on the affordable homes, councillors claim.

For the first time in three years, Torridge and North Devon councils, which share a joint local blueprint for development, have been able to demonstrate a five year land supply, meaning they have enough land for new homes. Without this, planning policies are considered out of date when considering planning applications.

Councillors say the lack of a five year land supply in the past has made it difficult for them to prevent inappropriate housing developments.

The two districts have enough land to deliver 6,261 homes over the next five years which they claim will be in the right places, but building them will be challenging.

Speaking at the joint planning policy meeting, Cllr Neil Denton (Ind, North Devon, Fremington) said a number of planning applications for hundreds of new homes have been withdrawn at Yelland recently.

“Developers have to sell other houses to be able to afford to build on new sites and because of the cost of properties and the current market it’s making it hard,” he said.

“Next year will be quite a slow year, so whether we will be able to demonstrate we have a five year land supply then I don’t know.”

Cllr Malcolm Prowse (Ind, North Devon, Bratton Fleming) said one problem was that registered housing providers don’t have government grants to take on social sector homes which are required as part of every development.

“A lot of the big housing providers haven’t got the funding so getting the 30 per cent affordable housing in any site is going to become increasingly difficult,” he said

“We need to find other models like retained equity to get affordable homes in the system.”

And he said the council couldn’t be complacent: “There are sites that have been mothballed, people have stopped working on them and we know there are some that may not come forward in the next five years or even seven or eight years, so we need to start looking for others.

Cllr Chris Leaver (Ind, Torridge, Northam) said their hands were tied: “We can give out all the planning permissions we like and we do but the developers start the site, make an entrance way, kerb it, put the barriers up and it comes to a halt.

“Local planning authorities have their hands tied on delivery, if we had a free rein we could probably do a lot more.”

Planning officers said the government sets such a high bar for what can be included in demonstrating a five year land supply that achieving it is very challenging.

Problematic locations include the former Torrington Creamery which was earmarked for 173 new homes but were not yet included because of difficulties developing the land.

Cllr David Worden (Lib Dem, South Molton) said: “We are not in a position like some other authorities who have to build new towns because they don’t have sufficient homes in their land supply.

“ I am quite happy we are in this position at the moment and we need to make sure developers are doing that part in delivering the houses.”