Affordable homes for former infant school site

£10m development for Tadley

DETAILED plans to develop 36 affordable homes in Tadley have been approved.

Housing association Aster Group will deliver the £10m development on the former site of Burnham Copse Infant School on land off Newchurch Road.

The scheme comprises 36 two-, three- and four-bed homes.

Nine of those homes (25 per cent) will be offered as rented properties and 27 as shared ownership.

In 2015, outline plans for the 36 homes were approved by Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council.

Last month, the reserved matters application – which includes technical detail such as the design, layout and scale of the development – were also given the green light.

The council said that the development would offer “an acceptable form of sustainable development, consistent with the parameters of the outline planning permission”.

It said: “The layout, landscaping and scale and appearance have been assessed in detail and, subject to conditions, would deliver an acceptable form of development in accordance with local plan policies.”

Indeed, the council welcomed the fact that all of the homes would be affordable, exceeding the council’s 40 per cent requirement.

Tadley Town Council objected to the scheme, saying that there did not appear to be any unallocated areas of car parking for visitors and delivery drivers.

It added that it would have liked to have seen retirement properties on the site.

However, a number of changes were made to the parking arrangements following requests from the borough council.

There will be 78 car parking spaces across the development.

EG Carter & Co Ltd has been appointed to build the homes alongside Galliford Try on the housing association’s £150m housebuilding framework.

The framework is designed to deliver 500 new homes per year across the South of England.

Aster group development director Amanda Williams said: “The housing crisis is not simply about volume.

“In areas like Hampshire, where homes are among the most expensive in the South West, affordable choice is equally important in giving people new homes for them and their families.

“Developing on our own land, as we are at Tadley, means we’re able to deliver a high portion of shared ownership, which can be difficult for housing associations that develop predominantly through Section 106 acquisitions in contract with housebuilders on their existing schemes.

“This approach allows us to offer more units as part of a multi-tenure approach, helping us build a wider array of affordable housing options to support more people priced out of the traditional housing market.”

EG Carter & Co Ltd associate director, partnership housing Mathew Vye said: “We are delighted to be working alongside Aster Group as part of their framework for a second year.

“This is our ninth development with Aster and we are looking forward to continuing our collaborative partnership developing new homes throughout the South of England under the contractor framework agreement.”

Part of the investment has come from grant funding from Homes England worth £660,000, for affordable housing in Tadley.

The scheme is scheduled for completion by the end of 2019.