Who is this housing development for?

How will it benefit the people of Taunton, Somerset, and the wider community?

Will it help fix the shortage of homes in this county, and nationwide?

There’s a UK-wide shortage of homes that the new government is pledged to put right.

My view is that the 125 houses in this proposal will not help put that right, writes Martin Hayman.

They are the wrong type of houses, in the wrong place, at the wrong price.

Their construction and, eventually, occupation would come at a cost to the character and social fabric of the neighbourhood and will be a net negative for Taunton as a whole.

How so?

We don’t know yet what the houses proposed will look like.

But 125 houses is a crowd in those two fields.

The overall effect is likely to be similar to the adjacent Orchard Grove: houses of standard pattern crammed together with as little of their own ground as national standards permit.

(Note that the ‘Landscape Master Plan’ map illustrates only 71 houses on the site so cannot be taken as a realistic guide to building density.)

Regardless, these homes are likely to be costly.

Referring again to Orchard Grove, some of the houses might have been affordable in 2010–13 when Orchard Grove was being planned.

But income growth has fallen a long way behind costs since the financial crisis of 2007/8.

A couple with two incomes is hard-pressed to raise the £250,000 for even ‘starter homes’ of this type, despite the mortgage help the big housebuilders may be able to offer.

Mortgage rates are predicted to remain at 2.5–3 per cent for the foreseeable future, while building costs will continue to rise; it’s unlikely homes offered in this new proposal will be offered for less than £300,000.

(A clue to target buyers lies in the sketch of the Comeytrowe Road frontage, where a Porsche sports-car is parked in front of the house outlines.)

Are these the right sort of homes for Taunton?

Government’s declared strategy is to remove planning obstacles to new homebuilding, but its emphasis has moved on to developments that offer people lower-cost, mixed-ownership homes on brown- and greyfield sites rather than satellite suburban communities on greenfield sites.

In place of parcels of small freehold homes, developers should look to build small–medium urban apartment blocks that can accommodate a variety of sizes and configurations of households with changing patterns of work (notably the growth of WFH) — and, crucially, are much less costly to buy (or rent).

The aim is also to support the regeneration of towns that have been hollowed-out by the collapse of high-street retail (itself a consequence of suburbanisation enabled by intensive car use).

Taunton has numerous brownfield and greyfield sites, several within a few minutes’ walk of County Hall: the vast empty shell of the Debenhams department store dominating the best site in North Street; the large parcel of contaminated riverside land west of Tangier Way; the old Pen & Quill pub, on the south side of Upper High Street, disused since 2017, yet sold and still derelict despite having planning permission for 7 apartments.

These locations, and many others, offer potential for mixed-use housing.

Their rejuvenation would help bring back Taunton’s past character of busy town life and restore colour and elegance to the Taunton townscape.

By contrast, the proposal to hand has nothing for Taunton town.

Its location means it would be another suburban satellite.

It would consume a significant proportion of the Trull/Comeytrowe ‘Green Wedge’ to the South West and further compromise Taunton’s exceptionally pleasing mix of urban and rural landscape.

Green fields, so close by, are a precious resource.

Once they’re gone, they’re gone.

And granting planning permission to this proposal would further encourage capital investment in developments of this type, which are net consumers of Taunton’s social resources (medical, educational, and highways, as noted by other submissions here), while contributing nothing to the future of the town itself.

The case for yet more housing of this type is entirely unproven.

Orchard Grove already offers a pipeline of around 1600 unbuilt homes of the type proposed here, and unlikely to be completed before 2029.

Let that play out; meanwhile focus on homes that enhance the townscape.

The scheme proposed here does not serve the needs of Taunton, and is out of step with current national policy.

Just say no.

Martin Hayman