Guildford Council Considers Reducing Affordable Housing in 1,500-Home Development Amid Deficit Concerns

Guildford Borough Council is contemplating a reduction in the affordable housing component of a 1,500-home development, described as “as an absolute last resort,” as part of its efforts to address a deficit exceeding £50 million. The Weyside Urban Village (WUV) regeneration project initially aimed for 600, or 40%, of its residences to be affordable. Outline planning permission for this £453 million initiative was secured in October 2021. The projected deficit for the project upon its completion has escalated to more than £50 million, attributed to high inflation and increased borrowing rates. Councillor Tom Hunt, who serves as the deputy leader of the council, stated that reducing the quantity of affordable homes is “absolutely not a lever [the council] wants to pull,” but emphasized that “it must be an option” for a thorough review of the circumstances. On Monday, the resources overview and scrutiny committee meeting was presented with several strategies to mitigate the deficit, among which decreasing the number of affordable homes was proposed as a “last resort.” The Local Democracy Reporting Service reported that additional approaches included securing loans from various boards, utilizing funds from asset disposals, expediting land sales to developers, engaging in long-term lending, and re-evaluating the council’s major development program. Councillor Richard Mills commented that altering the number of affordable homes “defeats the objective of the programme.” Implementing any such reduction would necessitate a planning application, a process estimated to take a year to finalize, and would also require informing Homes England about the modification of the initial business case. Mr. Hunt further stated that the council’s aim is to eliminate the deficit entirely; failure to do so would result in an annual budgetary impact due to interest payments and debt servicing on funds allocated to the WUV project. He indicated that the council has a six-month timeframe to determine its strategy for covering the deficit.