About 16,000 homes with planning permission across Bristol have not been built despite the housing crisis, it has been revealed. The figures were announced by city council leader Cllr Tony Dyer (Green, Southville) as he admitted his efforts had so far failed to get developers to construct desperately needed houses and flats.
The number is 2,000 more than last summer and comes 12 months after Cllr Dyer successfully tabled a motion to full council, amended and agreed to by the then-ruling Labour group and other parties, to take urgent steps to get homes built. These included putting pressure on house-builders to complete properties the council had granted consent for and bringing empty properties back into use.
In a question at Bristol City Council member forum on Tuesday, January 14, Cllr Don Alexander (Labour, Avonmouth & Lawrence Weston) said: “A key plank of the Green Party’s housing policy is ‘ensuring the 14,000 [now 16,000] unbuilt residential properties with planning permission are built as soon as possible’. Since coming to office in May, how many times, and where, have you successfully lobbied a developer with active planning permission to start construction?”
Cllr Dyer replied at the meeting: “The reality and the honest answer is I have not been successful in bringing forward any of the 16,000 homes with planning permission. Some of those homes are under construction and some are still subject to section 106 [developers’ contributions].
“There are a number of reasons why we have not been successful in going forward. Some of those are to do with local issues and others are to do with national issues.
“We also have serious problems with viability, and in some instances the only way we would be able to bring those planning applications forward without additional grant funding would be to reduce the amount of affordable housing, and I’m sure all of us in this chamber do not want to take that approach. But yes, at present, I have not been successful.”
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Cllr Alexander asked: “Regarding the many applications by private developers outstanding in the city where they have got planning permission but not expedited it in order to build homes, have you had a chance to lobby any of those to get on with their work and make the best of their planning permissions?” The council leader replied: “Yes. In some instances what we’ve had to do is terminate agreement with at least one developer because we were not making the progress we needed in terms of affordable housing.
“We are also in discussions with other private developers who have come forward and received planning permission but have not proceeded.”
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