New Exeter homes scheme will be 100 per cent affordable

'What's not to like about this?'

A new housing development in Exeter will be 100 per cent affordable.

The 40 properties at Blakeslee Drive will all be built with Exeter’s well-publicised need for affordable housing in mind. Twenty-two will be offered at low-cost social rents while the others will be sold with shared ownership, meaning owners buy a share of the property and pay rent for the remainder.

Exeter-based housing association LiveWest, which already has around 1,000 affordable homes in and around the city, will manage the development.

“What’s not to like about this?” Cllr Yvonne Atkinson (Lab, Alphington) asked fellow members of the planning committee. “It’s absolutely fantastic, and brilliant news for the city.”

Developers are normally expected to make 35 per cent of homes in any development ‘affordable’.

Gareth Jones of LiveWest told the meeting that funding from government agency Homes England would be used to deliver the new dwellings.

“I’m really pleased to see this,” said Cllr Zoe Hughes (Ind, Pennsylvania). “And I’m really pleased it’s LiveWest bringing it forward.”

Permission had already been granted for the homes to go ahead, but the applicants came back to the council asking for permission to go for the full 100 per cent affordable homes.

The committee voted unanimously to give them the green light.