Our affordable new homes are boarded up – the council is strangling us
RESIDENTS are furious after their affordable new homes were boarded up – with no one allowed inside.
Developer Bridge View said council delays and “abnormal” costs have held up the delivery of 33 homes in the Cornish village of Calstock.
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According to recent council documents, there are 160 households on the waiting list for housing in the area.
The homes were granted planning permission in 2018, but Bridge View boss Michael Wight said delays have cost the company £1.2 million.
Wight blasted the council for “strangling the company’s cash flow” by blocking the sale of the houses.
Unexpected costs during the construction work cost the developer a further £750,000, draining the budget for 15 affordable homes.
The costs included a second road, a drainage system and a wall costing £750,000.
Affordable housing companies withdrew from development in November last year after rising costs.
This meant that the developer was unable to meet planning conditions, so the site was mothballed.
Councilor Dorothy Kirk called the dispute a “tragic situation where everyone loses.”
She told me BBC: “I hope we can make it through somehow. We have to find a solution, end.
“I don’t want Calstock to be robbed of its homes, I don’t want the developer to lose everything.
“It has been a long, expensive and difficult journey. We need to have houses for the local people.”
Cornwall Council said: “We are committed to working with developers who have been granted planning permission to ensure that a housing development and the agreed number of affordable homes are delivered in accordance with the planning permission.”
Know your rights
These are your rights if your new-build home is not ready on time, according to consumer watchdog Which:
Builders must provide reliable and realistic information about when the home will be ready, the date of legal completion and the date of delivery of the home.
If there is an unreasonable delay in completing the property, you have the right not to proceed with the purchase and will receive a full refund of your booking fee.
But keep in mind that builders often include estimated timings in contracts – sometimes overly ambitious timings – which can lead to two problems.
The first is that you move in on time, but discover many problems (such as wonky light switches or incomplete kit), and the second is that you cannot move in on time.
If you have an issue with your developer and need to escalate a complaint, you must first go through the formal complaints procedure.
If the problem isn’t resolved, you can check to see if your developer has signed up for a default code.
Read more on the Which website.