Star date: 9th June 2016

URBAN SPLASH WOULDN'T PAY £639,000 PLANNING FEES – BUT HOUSES ON MARKET FOR £335,000

"We started out...to make...affordable housing" Jonathan Falkingham, Urban Splash

Urban Splash has put the first of its 71 pre-fab terraced HoUSes up for sale in Trinity, with costs between £250,000 and £335,000 plus add-ons. At the Salford Council planning panel meeting in January, it was stated that Urban Splash should have paid £639,529 in fees (not even the cost of two houses), which the company avoided as it said the scheme wouldn't be `viable'.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Falkingham of Urban Splash has been telling the media that the new houses are "affordable"...

Full details here...

Back in January, Salford Council's planning panel approved plans from Urban Splash to build 71 houses and 100 flats by the River Irwell off Trinity Way.

Urban Splash should have paid £639,529 in Section 106 fees and should also have provided 10% affordable houses but, as usual, the developer stated that the scheme wouldn't be `viable' if it had to cough up.

Urban Splash (US) avoided paying anything, except a clawback arrangement of `up to £100,000' towards a riverside walkway (even though there's one already there) if the scheme subsequently makes an even bigger profit than US predicted.

Now the first of the pre-fab terraces, branded `HoUSes', are on sale, with prices ranging between £250,000 and £335,000, and the brochure stating this is the `Plot based price only', with `additional costs' depending on layout. The Section 106 fees totalled the market price of just two of the houses on sale, never mind the avoided 10% of affordable houses that US should have been supplying.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Falkingham, co-founder and creative director of Urban Splash, told the Sunday Times recently on the subject of the HoUSe development that "We started out with this really simple proposition - to make well designed, affordable housing...We just want to offer something different, because we think there is a demand for it."

The last official housing waiting list numbers for Salford was 14,194, although people have been kicked off the list since the housing allocation policy was changed earlier this year (see here). And, according to Council figures, the average Salford resident's wage is £23,903 (see here), making these properties totally unaffordable.

Urban Splash founder, Tom Bloxham, will be speaking at the huge Housing 2016 Conference at the end of June on `gaining community buy in to regeneration projects', and the company will be running shuttle buses from the Conference to its show HoUSe.

Greater Manchester Housing Action Group, which is fighting for more real affordable housing in the region, will be running a series of actions and alternative meetings to coincide with the Conference (more details to follow).

Meanwhile, the actual site for Urban Splash development, down Springfield Lane, off Trinity Way, is yet to be started despite the houses going on sale. The development will be a part-gated community (with gates 2.1metres high) within a flood zone 2 area - where "dwellings could be flooded to a depth of 1.1m", and the company will be trashing a massive 365 trees on the site as part of construction, as well as upsetting the schedule one black redstart bird which has been spotted nesting in the area.

This week, some homeless people didn't wait for the unaffordable properties to be built – and pitched tents on the site, which Urban Splash boasts has `Harvey Nics less than half a mile away!'

For lots more detail, including a bit of a history of the site, the beach, the Upside Down houses in Langworthy fiasco and more see previous Salford Star article – click here...

See also the 2008 short comedy film, Costa del Salford, based on the Urban Splash beach, shot on primitive mobile phones by members of Salford Community Media Partnership (SCMP) - click here