This week is set to cost hard up Salford Council almost £1million in payments from just four developer schemes due before its Planning Panel on Thursday.
First up is the stunning white-clad Grade II listed Dock Office on Salford Quays. Developers want to turn the iconic building into 67 luxury apartments, some with private gardens and entrances, others with their own terraces.
A planning report states that the developer should have to pay planning charges totalling £266,828 (Open space provision: £136,370; Public realm, infrastructure and heritage: £100,500; Construction training: £10,050; Climate change: £13,400 and Admin: £6,508) plus providing some affordable housing...
...However, the developer will be paying Salford Council just £15,730!
The loophole comes via the ConDem Government's NPPF (National Planning Policy Framework) which allows the developer to state that the scheme wouldn't be `viable' – or its profit margins won't be huge enough - if it had to make such payments*. And the Council's planning officers and councillors on the Planning Panel seem to roll over every time this is brought up.
As the Dock Office developers are let off with £251,098 (plus `unviable' affordable housing), speculators are cashing in down at Chapel Street too, opposite the Greengate Fountains.
Here, City Suites Ltd - whose directors Mark Stott, Giles Beswick and Christopher Oakes are involved in £multi-million property deals from London to Dubai – wants to build a 17 storey block comprising 260 `turn key' apartments, complete with gym, swimming pool and a rooftop lounge - "aimed at young professionals, executives and business people who want high quality accommodation and the excitement and convenience of living in the heart of the regional centre"...
The planning report states that the flats will be bought by a split of `owner occupiers and investor leaseholders', and infers that the company should have absolutely no problem in selling the properties... "The reality...of the past few months is that a buoyancy has returned to the market"...
...But, after a bit of `viability' hand wringing by the Alderley Edge based millionaires, Salford Council is due to let the company off with a whopping £476,781 in payments.**
City Suites should be paying £826,781 in planning obligation fees but, instead, will pay just £350,000 towards `public realm' in Greengate – in other words, prettying up the area to make its own property even more valuable.
"The reasonable developer return, considered necessary by paragraph 173 of the NPPF, is not currently delivered by this development" states the planning appraisal, adding that the obligation for affordable housing isn't viable either.
Meanwhile, Peel Holdings has submitted an application to this week's Planning Panel for an eleven storey block at MediaCityUK featuring a 112 bedroom hotel, a `media hub' and six floors of offices.
For this 7,841square metres of space Peel should be paying £23.50 per sqm in planning obligations, totalling around £184,263. But Peel Holdings will be paying absolutely nothing, in line with all its other massive developments at Media City.
Indeed, the planning appraisal by Salford Council doesn't even mention any payments due at all, referring it all back to the original mass application for MediaCityUK. This states that, in total, Peel should have been paying £2,749,402.50 and £2,811,250 - ie over £5million – in various planning obligations.
...But the Council waived the whole lot – mainly because North West Development Agency (with its Peel Holdings revolving doors – see here and see here) had stumped up £30million in public money for `public realm and infrastructure' (the piazza at Media City now policed by Peel's own private security force).
These three applications, at the very top of the luxury market, if approved at this week's Planning Panel, will lose cash strapped Salford Council £912,142 in payments it could have received.
And just to complete the cash giveaway, Salford Council is also set to waive £65,686.10 in planning fees for a warehouse in Clifton on `viability' issues, and also because "the development would allow the applicant to rationalise his operations and improve overall business performance".
So, four applications this week alone will see Salford Council chuck away almost £1million (£977,828.10) of income it desperately needs given the massive cuts it's currently making.
It seems like the rich are getting benefits, while the most vulnerable are having their benefits axed. Try telling Salford Council you have `viability' issues paying your rent or Council Tax and watch the reaction...
*******
* From the planning report... "Paragraph 173 of the NPPF states that pursuing sustainable development requires careful attention to viability and costs in decision-taking and that to ensure viability the costs of any requirements likely to be applied to development such as requirements for affordable housing and infrastructure contributions should, when taking account of the normal cost of development and mitigation, provide competitive returns to a willing land owner and willing developer to enable the development to be deliverable."
** Both the first two applications do have a clause that if "sales values reach a certain level" there is a "mechanism to ensure that an increased contribution is made". The Salford Star has never seen any of these `mechanisms' enacted.
Photos by Steven Speed
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