Housing development scrapped in St Weonards

Two Rivers Housing Association, in association with Herefordshire Council, first proposed homes next to Church Hill in St Weonards in 2012.

But last year Two Rivers pulled out and Herefordshire Housing Association [HHA] looked at the viability of building six affordable houses at the site.

At last night's St Weonards Parish Council meeting HHA announced they would not be taking the scheme forward as it is not financially viable.

Kimberly Read from HHA said: "We looked at different tenures but it still doesn't work for the cost of developing the site for six units.

"It is not financially viable to take it forward."

Housing Associations have to cut social housing rents by 1 per cent each year for the next four years from next month in a move the government says will help reduce the country’s housing benefit bill.

But Ms Read said: "When we factored that into the cost for the scheme it had quite a negative impact."

She said in January the Homes and Communities Agency confirmed there would no longer be funding available for affordable rented homes and funding would only be allocated to home ownership tenures in line with the government’s agenda.

She said they looked at increasing the number of houses, but this would not be supported by planners, and she said she looked at options such as providing more shared ownership or low cost market but this was not viable either.

Ms Read said: "We are governed by whatever the government gives us. You can see our dilemma from this side of the fence."

Church Hill was made into a one way system in 2014 at the request of the highways department at Herefordshire Council.

Ms Read said: "The road was altered because highways wouldn't support the scheme. They would only support the scheme if the road was changed. "Planning officers then wouldn't support the number."

The meeting heard that according to Herefordshire Council's core strategy 16 new homes need to be built in the village by 2031.