Dan Hunt of the Local Democracy Reporting Service writes that L&W Wilson (Higham) Ltd have u-turned on their initial commitment. That means the company will no longer be delivering any affordable housing in Allithwaite, Cumbria. In 2024, the company obtained outline planning permission from Westmorland and Furness Council. They had first pledged to deliver 12 of the development’s two-to-four-bedroom homes at Barn Hey, off Flookburgh Road, as affordable dwellings.
Yet Westmorland and Furness is in the middle of a major housing crisis. Yet it has some of the most unaffordable housing markets in the UK, outside the south-east of England. Property prices in the surrounding area are roughly seven times median household income. This gap only serves to highlight the urgent need for more accessible housing solutions.
The site they planned to develop is four acres (1.6 hectares). The community has welcomed this as a long overdue solution to their chronic shortage of social and affordable housing. L&W Wilson (Higham) Ltd has since declared that fulfilling the original promise of 12 affordable homes is now deemed “financially unviable.”
Just last week in a resubmission of planning documents, the developer argued that adding affordable homes would impose “unreasonable financial burdens” on the project. They contend that this requirement jeopardizes the project’s financial feasibility. These burdens, they claim, may “possibly slow or even halt” the development of the outlined homes entirely. The developer claims that increasing interest costs have introduced further difficulty to the project’s financial feasibility. This unfortunate turn of events would render completely unfeasible our initial commitment.
That decision has sparked an outcry from local officials and community members across the country. We’ve contacted Westmorland and Furness Council for their reaction on this dramatic shift in the development’s fortunes. We’re particularly interested in hearing how it’ll affect the local residents we know are trying to find affordable housing options.
Developers continue to struggle with the challenges illustrated by this situation – making a project economically feasible while ensuring the community’s needs are met. Given this new development, it’s time to take a closer look at the Section 106 agreement. This settlement codifies the ways developers need to start paying their fair share for local infrastructure and affordable housing.
