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Plymouth affordable home building stalls as costs top sale prices
Only 96 affordable homes were built in Plymouth last year. Council member Mark Lowry said the gap between construction cost and sale price is at least £50,000 per unit.
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Plymouth built only 96 affordable homes last year, 37 of them for social rent, according to Local Democracy Reporting Service data. The city has 4,500 homes with planning consent that have not yet broken ground.
Plymouth City Council said it recognised it "needed to do better" but the economics have turned hostile. Cabinet member Mark Lowry told the scrutiny board that "it costs more money to build a home than it actually does to sell it." The gap runs at least £50,000 per unit, he said, meaning no developer will build unless the council or another party contributes that sum.
"The reality of the situation is it is unaffordable to build a home in Plymouth," Lowry said.
A council report described overall affordable housing completions as "flat with stalled development sites a continuing concern."
Andrew Crumplin, a builder and site manager who sits on the council for Reform UK, pushed back. "Everyone I know builds houses, it just seems like a problem for the council," he said. "I find it hard to believe that statement that you need to chuck £50,000 at a house to get a builder to build it." He added that spending £4 million extra on 80 homes at Bath Street and £6 million on Southway "seems ludicrous."