'Cost of building' hits affordable homes targets

Only 96 "affordable" homes, including 37 for social rent, were built in Plymouth last year.

Plymouth City Council said it recognised it "needed to do better" but the cost of building was so high it was no longer a viable option for developers unless they were subsidised.

It recently emerged that there are 4,500 homes with planning consent in Plymouth that are not yet under construction.

"Overall affordable housing completions remain flat with stalled development sites a continuing concern," according to a council report.

Affordable homes are let at least 20% below local market rents and social homes at about 50% of local rents for people on low incomes, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Plymouth's cabinet member for organisational efficiency, Mark Lowry (Labour, Southway), said building homes was " very very challenging" for any local authority at the moment.

He told councillors at the scrutiny board management meeting that despite government help with building "the reality of the situation is it is unaffordable to build a home in Plymouth, it costs more money to build a home than it actually does to sell it".

Lowry added: "The differential is at least £50,000 so you won't find anyone who wants to build a home in the city unless we as a council or somebody puts fifty grand on the table to assist."

Andrew Crumplin (Reform UK, Moor View), who is a builder and site manager, said: "Everyone I know builds houses, it just seems like a problem for the council, I find it hard to believe that statement that you need to chuck £50,000 at a house to get a builder to build it."

"We would be spending an extra four million on 80 homes at Bath Street and six million on Southway – that seems ludicrous."

Daniel Steel (Labour, Plymstock Radford) told the meeting: "We look like we are quite off track to what we should be."

A £33.5m scheme to build 135 affordable homes at Bath Street at Millbay, including 80 for social rent has started with a £14m contribution from Homes England.

The government agency signed a memorandum of understanding with the council to accelerate building in the city.

The council has a vision to build 10,000 city centre homes by 2036.

It said progress was being made to unlock major housing sites including the former Southway Paper Converting Mill and mixed tenure homes at Barne Barton estate.

Two hundred affordable homes are forecast to be built in the city during 2026/27 which would see a "significant increase" on recent years, the corporate plan monitoring report said.

Armada Way will be the focus for hundreds of the homes after Homes England acquired the vacant Congress Hall and neighbouring Mayflower House which it is set to demolish and build tower blocks.

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