Major affordable housing success in the Green Belt

Tetlow King Planning has recently persuaded Bromsgrove District Council to approve a scheme for 20 affordable dwellings within the Green Belt on behalf of the Bromsgrove District Housing Trust.

Officers had recommended refusal of the scheme on several grounds but members were ultimately persuaded that the benefits of providing much needed affordable housing outweighed any potential planning harm.

Bromsgrove recently featured in an Inside Housing survey as one of the districts with the longest housing waiting lists in England, i.e. families in priority need have to wait up to 10 years for a three or four bedroom house.

In reaching their decision, the Committee weighed these pressing housing needs against the very limited opportunities for affordable housing development outside the Green Belt which covers almost all of the District.

The application was referred to the Government Office for the West Midlands both as a departure from the development plan and under the Green Belt Direction but they decided not to intervene on the basis that the issues involved were of no more than local importance and for the Council to determine.