Affordable housing at both the Parkway development and the upcoming Racecourse development are in doubt and at risk of further cuts, according to a report from Cllr Alan Law at Thursday's meeting of the West Berkshire District Council Executive Members.

It was revealed that the affordable housing quota within the Racecourse development is "not viable", and that in developments of this size developers often come back and ask for a reduction in the amount of affordable housing.

In a separate development, it was revealed that there are no funds available to insert the affordable units into the Parkway development. With an ageing population in West Berkshire proving to be a huge burden on the council and financial resources, how important is it to provide affordable housing within the district and do you believe the council would be right to accept a reduction in the number of affordable housing within local developments?

Quoted from Administrator

With an ageing population in West Berkshire proving to be a huge burden on the council and financial resources, how important is it to provide affordable housing within the district and do you believe the council would be right to accept a reduction in the number of affordable housing within local developments?

An ageing population!  And pray what do you suggest we do with us all...put us in a chamber and gas us.>>There, that's solved that one.
As for affordable housing, get rid of it.. We didn't have any help in my day..can you give me one good reason for it now?

Quoted from dodgy

An ageing population!  And pray what do you suggest we do with us all...put us in a chamber and gas us.>>There, that's solved that one.
As for affordable housing, get rid of it.. We didn't have any help in my day..can you give me one good reason for it now?

There are many people who cant afford the current mortgages so why shouldnt they get help?

Quoted from dodgy

An ageing population!  And pray what do you suggest we do with us all...put us in a chamber and gas us.>>There, that's solved that one.
As for affordable housing, get rid of it.. We didn't have any help in my day..can you give me one good reason for it now?

The reason we have an ageing population that is worse than our neighbours is because we dilute the affordable housing with more expensive property. This means those on low and middle incomes can't buy and as a result move elsewhere. With more affodable housing we can retaing younger people who will pay tax in the area and help relieve the burden than we are staring at. If we don't take action, we will be in a desperate position. You think it's bad now, being £2m overspent every year on adult social care, wait and see what happens in ten years if we don't change our attitude.

Nobody is suggesting that getting old is a bad thing. We just need to retain younger tax payers to help pay for the cost associated with looking after those who need care and support. It's time for Alan Law and Graham Jones to come clean, what is the plan for the Racecourse?

Ask the developer; they have all the aces.

Quoted from Greenham Common

Ask the developer; they have all the aces.

That's because the council left themselves wide open. Why on earth would you remove the minimum commitment in the LDF? I said this would happen, and it must have been the plan all along. How stupid were we to believe what they had to say at the time?

I wasn't stupid to believe it; I just don't have any power to do anything about it.

Quoted from Greenham Common

I wasn't stupid to believe it; I just don't have any power to do anything about it.

Like a lot of things, I actually took the council at it's word. People ask me why I'm so suspicious of the council, it's because of the amount of times they have misled me.

Quoted from Administrator

Affordable housing at both the Parkway development and the upcoming Racecourse development are in doubt and at risk of further cuts, according to a report from Cllr Alan Law at Thursday's meeting of the West Berkshire District Council Executive Members.

Affordable housing at Parkway?  It's a bit difficult to cut from zero.

Quoted from blackdog

Affordable housing at Parkway?  It's a bit difficult to cut from zero.

As far as I am aware, there is still an affordable housing content at Parkway.

Councillor Roger Hunneman is proud of the fact that he rescued the deal on the last occasion when Standard Life tried to back out. In fact I believe that they tried to back out of the whole project by saying it was not viable with an affordable housing content.

Sorry - forgot all the ramifications:

SLI tried to get the affordable housing at Parkway was removed in return for an S106 (or similar) payment of around £100k.
http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/Article.aspx?articleID=6622

WBC  then got some affordable housing reinstated by committing £1,000,000 of WBC funds to pay for it.
http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/Article.aspx?articleID=6733

So what is happening now? Are WBC trying to save £1million?

Quoted from blackdog

Sorry - forgot all the ramifications:

SLI tried to get the affordable housing at Parkway was removed in return for an S106 (or similar) payment of around £100k.
http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/Article.aspx?articleID=6622

WBC  then got some affordable housing reinstated by committing £1,000,000 of WBC funds to pay for it.
http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/Article.aspx?articleID=6733

So what is happening now? Are WBC trying to save £1million?

I think it's more of a case that SLI are in control of the situation, and the council are simply putty in their hands. It looks like West Berks will either have to stump up the cash, or accept there will be no affordable housing. That's the way I understand what is going on, maybe one ogf the elected members can post their understanding here or contact someone like BrianB with a statement through the NRA, and he can post it here?

On the other hand, the Racecourse still has 28% affordable housing within the planning consent. Nothing has been built. The council said they will not allow a dilution (despite removing the minimum commitment in the LDF). As they have a history of saying one thing and doing another, I won't hold out much hope of the council turning the developers away. But if they don't stick to what they said last year, it will be another case of the council breaking trust of those who elected them.

Social/affordable housing in Parkway will obviously devalue the rest of the development in terms of exclusive appartments overlooking Victoria Park. There are several occasions when WBC have given in to developers who have pleaded with them to remove the affordable housing content. The college site in Oxford Road is probably the largest of these.

Unfortunately the Conservative Cartel have such a large majority that they can more or less do whatever they want.

Quoted from richard.garvie

I think it's more of a case that SLI are in control of the situation, and the council are simply putty in their hands. It looks like West Berks will either have to stump up the cash, or accept there will be no affordable housing.

As I understand it we are already past that point - WBC are already commited to paying for the affordable housing (£1million).  In the current economic climate I can see how WBC might see this as an easy way to make a significant contribution towards their expenditure cuts.

Well, I was at the meeting the OP refers to on Thursday night, maybe this is a new development or the report is years out of date like the education one at the same meeting?