Affordable units being withheld at Parkway until private ones sold

In May, after being pressed by the Newbury Weekly News, the developer, Standard Life Investments, confirmed that all 37 affordable units were complete.
However, owing to an agreement with West Berkshire Council, SLI can wait until 74 private units have been sold before releasing 19 of the affordable units, and at least 120 private units are occupied before making the remaining 18 affordable units available.
In mid-August, a source, who wished to remain anonymous said that 31 private units had been sold. However an SLI spokeswoman refused to confirm the most up-to-date number.
SLI has also yet to appoint a housing operator to manage the stock of affordable homes.
The provision of affordable homes at the prestige town centre development has been the subject of heated debate for years.
In 2006, the council agreed to reduce the percentage of affordable homes at the development from the usual 30 per cent to 20 per cent after the developer claimed that the scheme was not financially viable.
Liberal Democrat Jeff Brooks (Thatcham West) said at the time that his party was “drawing a line in the sand” to ensure that no more concessions were made to the developer over the number of affordable houses.
However, in 2008, the council was obliged to hand over £900,000 to SLI to ensure affordable housing was included in the 184-apartment development, after the developer said it could not afford to build any.
This week, Mr Brooks said: “It’s disappointing that so many units have to be sold on the private market before we can get these affordable ones.
“It’s frustrating that that commercial arrangement was entered into, we need those affordable homes. I regret that that’s where we have ended up.
“It seems that we should have struck a harder bargain in terms of how many private units had to be sold before the affordable units were released.I think it’s something we must avoid in future.”
A spokesman for the council, Keith Ulyatt, said: “The widely-applauded agreement on the Parkway development has delivered huge, multiple and very welcome benefits for Newbury of which affordable housing is just one part and that, too, will be delivered as the housing market picks up, which national indicators this week suggest it will soon do.”
The last of the private dwellings were completed on the site at the end of July.