March 7, 2018 | less than a minute read

Bristol City Council's approach to affordable housing

Get in touch

Michael Craik

Consultant, Construction

Get in touch

Michael Craik

Consultant, Construction

An article on how Bristol City Council is seeking to provide affordable housing in a market some say is second only to London in terms of house price increase.

Generally, however, the percentage of affordable housing based on the number of units granted planning permission remains low. In the case of Manchester the Guardian reports it is zero%. I wonder what the the brothers Gallagher would say (or perhaps sing) about that particular statistic?

“We’re only going to work with [developers] who are interested in meeting our objectives,” says Smith. “If you come to us with a record of using ‘viability assessments’, ‘permitted development’ rules (which allow offices to be converted into housing, again without any requirement for affordable units) and other mechanisms to avoid delivering affordable housing on privately owned land, don’t expect to partner with us on land that we own.”