PLANS have been lodged to lower the number of ‘affordable homes’ a developer is required to build at a site in Dalton in a bid to ‘safeguard the business’.

Harry Barker Properties Ltd has submitted an application to Westmorland and Furness Council to modify a legal agreement to replace the requirement to provide four affordable units with the provision of a single affordable unit to be rented by a social housing provider.

In October 2019 a planning application to construct up to 36 homes on the site opposite Greenhill Ponds off Greystones Lane was approved by the then Barrow Borough Council.

Planning documents state: “Following the completion of plots 1 to 14, 17 and 18 it became apparent that abnormal costs (particularly with regard to the adverse ground conditions including the need for retaining walls and removal of surplus material) and associated increase in construction costs, brought into question the viability of the project.”

According to plans the profit margin for the development is less than five per cent with a typical developer profit being around 18 per cent.

A supporting statement adds: “To safeguard the business and achieve the wider social and environmental benefits of completing the development, the applicant has had no option but to submit a further application to modify the existing section 106 Agreement.”

In April 2024, members of Barrow in Furness local area planning committee for Westmorland and Furness Council voted against officers’ recommendations and refused to modify a legal agreement made with the applicant Harry Barker Properties Ltd.

Councillors turned down the application from the developer to remove the requirement to provide four affordable housing units on the site and contribute £63,000 to the council for the provision of offsite affordable housing provision.

Councillor Tony Callister (Dalton South, Labour) previously said at the planning meeting: “I think if we waiver away from that obligation by agreement, are we setting a precedent for any building development in this area.

“If you put yourself in an agreement to provide affordable housing which is what we are wishing for, you’ve got to stand by that agreement.”

He called on the developer to stand by the contract ‘to the letter’.

Councillor Frank Cassidy (Walney Island, Labour) previously labelled the proposal to remove the requirement to build affordable homes as ‘disappointing’.

“I would also guess that if you took a poll of the main street in Dalton or in Barrow on a Saturday afternoon, they would all say that we need more affordable homes,” he added.

A supporting statement submitted on behalf of the developer with the new application says: “HBP recognise that the provision of affordable housing is an important planning objective at a national and local level and it has been with great reluctance that circumstances have forced the company to submit the previous and current proposal.

“The company, as a local business, is committed to the area and submitted the current application on the basis that the economic, social and environmental disadvantages (by not completing the development of the site and the severe impact on the business) associated with insisting on the provision of all the affordable housing units were outweighed by the respective advantages of enabling the scheme to be completed.”