Star date: 18th February 2015 

MORE SALFORD FLATS BEING SOLD BEFORE PLANNING PERMISSION GRANTED

Developer Knight Knox and associated agents are selling flats at the proposed Adelphi Wharf blocks before any planning permission or Section 106 agreements have been put in place.

The flats on Adelphi Street, on the site of the previously ill-fated Foundry Wharf development, are being touted as "high-end riverside apartments in Manchester", while the Knight Knox International website is claiming that one third of the flats in Phase One are already sold.

Full details here...

Following the Salford Star article last November about the `X1 Media City, Manchester' development that was being flogged with no planning permission (see here), the practice seems to be catching on, as Knight Knox is now also pushing flats at its proposed Adelphi Wharf blocks with no planning permission.

Salford Star readers have been in touch, stating they have been `spammed' with emails by the `Buy Association' promising "high-end riverside apartments in Manchester" comprised of "580 stunning apartments, set against the River Irwell's picturesque waterfront", with `assured completion due August 2016'.

Meanwhile, the Knight Knox website is claiming that 30% of the flats on sale in its Phase One are already `sold out'. However, the proposed development hasn't even been passed by Salford City Council's planning panel yet – which has the power to reject the application.

A video on the Adelphi Wharf page of the Knight Knox International website states that its `buy to let properties' are `designed to appeal to the investor market', adding that `the potential to earn a high return on a property is greater now than at the height of the boom'. And never mind affordable housing, the video explains that its blocks are `specifically designed to attract the best paying tenants'...

With Phase One already `30% sold out' and the `best paying tenants' being lined up to fill the flats, Knight Knox should find it difficult to argue that the scheme won't be `viable' if it has to pay fees when its planning application does eventually come before Salford Council's planning panel.

The last twelve months have seen a procession of developers pleading poverty; that their schemes for thousands of apartments wouldn't be `viable' if they had to pay Section 106 planning obligations for things like open space, infrastructure and construction training; or if they had to provide affordable housing in line with Council policy.

The Council's Assistant Mayor for Planning recently called the practice "a public scandal of immense proportions", while rightly blaming the ConDem Government's National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) "that has seen Eric Pickles rig the planning regulations in order to deprive, to rob, local communities of its essential investment in order to line the pockets of landowners and developers" (see here).

The proposed Adelphi Wharf development is on the same site as the ill fated Foundry Wharf scheme for a 27 storey apartment tower which imploded in 2010, leaving the site derelict. The planning permission for that scheme was granted in 2007, under the last Labour Government, without any need to provide affordable housing. The only Section 106 agreement appeared to be for a `riverside walkway' enhancing the value of the developer's own project (see Salford Star printed issue 4 - The Great Affordable Homes Scandal).

Meanwhile, the `X1 Media City, Manchester' development  still appears to have no planning permission, or Section 106 agreement or affordable housing in place, despite continuing to market its flats.

See previous Salford Star articles...

Salford's Housing Poverty Crisis – click here

Salford Council Set To Waive £1.5m fees for Countryside Properties - click here