Walsingham Planning advises various private sector developers and Registered Social Landlords in regard to affordable housing proposals. Such sites range from previously developed land in urban areas to greenfield sites in the Green Belt.
Amongst our successes in this sector was a scheme in Meir Heath, Staffordshire where we obtained planning permission for the development of a greenfield site in the Green Belt for 20 affordable homes.
As part of the project we evolved a Housing Sequential Assessment which enabled us to robustly demonstrate a lack of suitable, available and viable non Green Belt sites to accommodate the need for this form of development. This assessment was critical to gaining officer and elected Member support for the scheme, and the principle of the development of the site for housing, in the context of strong local objection
Significant financial contributions were initially sought towards local infrastructure improvements. Working closely with the Council and District Valuer, we were successful in negotiating away all financial contributions, resulting in the grant of a planning permission with no Section 106 obligations.