More than 100 apartments will be built on the edge of Preston’s university quarter after a developer agreed to fund affordable housing elsewhere in the city – if it makes enough profit on the project.
Preston City Council’s planning committee gave the green light to the flats – on a derelict site off Fylde Road, close to the University of Lancashire – in July last year. The plot has been largely unoccupied since a fire in the 1960s destroyed the 19th-century mill building that used to occupy it.
A remaining three-storey retail and office unit at the front of the site – most recently occupied by a fireplace showroom and car rental facility a decade ago – is also to be flattened as part of the plans.
Councillors granted permission for the construction of two adjoining residential blocks – containing up to 108 apartments – which will rise from four storeys in height at the roadside to a peak of 10 floors in the central part of the complex.
However, that approval came with a caveat after the applicant successfully argued that the development would not be financially viable if it were forced to deliver the discounted dwellings that would usually be required as part of such a scheme and the cash to boost local school capacity.
Local planning policy demands at least 30 percent of new properties within urban housing schemes fall into the officially-defined ‘affordable’ category – either for rent or sale – while education bosses at Lancashire County Council had sought funding for the cost of the extra school places potentially needed as a result of the new housing.
While the city council accepted the case made by Preston-based Skyhigh Investments Limited that neither contribution could be afforded based on the forecast profitability of the development – planning chiefs insisted on a so-called ‘review mechanism’ being drawn up which would see reassess, at a later date, the money ultimately generated by the project.
Any ‘surplus’ profit subsequently identified would then be paid over in sums to fund the affordable housing on another site in the city – equivalent to the level that could have been provided within the Fylde Road scheme – and/or the new school places.
The mechanics of that deal have now been agreed by two parties – more than a year after the planning permission was granted. It means the apartments now have outline approval, although the detailed designs will need a separate thumbs up.
The applicant has already stated that 52 of the apartments will have one bedroom, with the same number boasting two – and there will also be four larger, three-bedroomed dwellings.
A rooftop terrace and gardens will complete the high-rise development – which drops down to eight storeys at the rear, close to the railway line – while the ground floor will contain space for retail premises.
The viability review will take place before 65 percent of the new dwellings are occupied – and no more than 75 percent of them will be permitted to be filled before the outcome of the process is decided.
Subscribe: Keep in touch directly with the latest headlines from Blog Preston, join our WhatsApp channel and subscribe for our twice-a-week email newsletter. Both free and direct to your phone and inbox.
Read more: See the latest Preston news and headlines
