Council warns housing work must commence or millions will be lost

Wiltshire Council have warned Persimmon Homes need to begin building homes by spring or they face losing £8m of government funds.

Persimmon Homes, a nationwide housebuilder, was contracted to begin work in Wiltshire by constructing 2,500 new homes, two primary schools and one secondary school in Trowbridge.

However, due to ‘market uncertainty’ the company submitted a claim to push progress back to the end of September. But, this request was rejected, as the Council deemed it ‘unfair’ and are now pushing for Persimmon Homes to sign an agreement that will see progress start on 31^st March.

The application was given permission in 2018 and since then Wiltshire’s local authority have been waiting for developers to sign the 106 agreement, but legal wrangling has led to stagnation.

The 106 agreement forces developers to make improvements in the local area to offset the pressures created by new housing. This means things like making improvements to surrounding roads, introducing a certain amount of affordable housing, and creating a certain amount of public space.

The local authority informed the Local Democracy Reporting Service, that the planning organisation had been given a deadline of 31^st March 2023 as that is when the £8m government grant for development expires.

However, this is not the first deadline that has been failed to be met. Originally reported by the BBC, Chairman Howard Greenman from the council’s planning committee, said there have been three-time scales that have ‘slipped’ through the net.

Mr Greenman said: ‘The perception is that we feel that we’ve been held over a barrel by developers and Persimmon not least have been a little bit mischievous with us in the past.’

One of the previous changes the developers requested as part of the agreement was for the number of affordable homes to be reduced to make the proposal more financially viable, which the council agreed to. 

Cllr Tony Trotman explained the significance of the document by saying: ‘It is a legal agreement to start the development, they will have to put a spade in the ground and get it moving.’

Photo by Patrick Graham