Affordable homes recommended to be sold at open market value (From Western Telegraph)

Affordable homes recommended to be sold at open market value

1:00pm Tuesday 8th January 2013 in News

An application has been made to allow affordable homes in Milford Haven to be sold at open market value.

The Pembrokeshire County Council planning committee will today (Tuesday) discuss the application relating to 177-199 Skomer Drive and officers have recommended that it be approved.

The houses are on a site formerly known as the West Hill Farm Estate, on the northern edge of the town, and 12 of the 90 homes were classed as affordable housing under planning permission granted in 2007.

Difficulty in obtaining mortgages within the parameters described in the existing planning conditions and current economic climate were cited as an argument for lifting the conditions.

Another issue was that the planning conditions applied to this build were linked to a multiple of average local income, putting the value of a house at approximately £110,204 while the current open market value is around £90,000.

The officer’s report states that “it is both rational and reasonable to allow these properties to be sold unrestricted by any planning conditions, on the open market”.

Retaining the link between sales values and a multiple of average local income is not supported by current planing policy and will not be supported in emerging local development planning, adds the report.

Officers recommend that the properties “should be released from the restrictions imposed by the current planning conditions”.