More than 500 new homes will be built near a Surrey train station after 65 extra apartments were approved for a huge regeneration scheme. The controversial £150m scheme to build 438 homes next to Guildford railway station was given the green light in 2018 after the council's refusal was overturned by a planning inspector at appeal.
The project led by Solum Regeneration, an organisation set up as a partnership between Network Rail and Kier Property. It was over a decade ago, in August 2014 that the plans were first mooted.
This year Solum proposed increasing the total number of homes from 438 to 503 by changing the internal layouts in four out of the five of the buildings. The heights of the buildings will stay the same, between eight and 10 storeys.
Officers at Guildford Borough Council approved the application to increase the homes by 65 on Friday, December 20, using their delegated powers. Currently, work on the new station, which formed part of the original application, is meant to begin in 2025 with plans to double the height of the ticket hall aimed at accommodating an increase in passengers.
The new proposals for extra homes “will deliver a range of substantial social, economic and environmental benefits” to Guildford town centre, according to planning documents submitted by the developers. They added the plans would “optimise” the site by delivering an additional 65 homes “within the same bulk, scale or massing and building height” as the existing approved scheme.
One of the blocks of flats will see 41 homes added to the building, whereas another will have just one extra included. Block E, which has already been built, will still have 98 homes. No changes have been made to the size of commercial spaces in the proposed buildings, but the shop and accommodation entrances have been altered.
Six more affordable homes will be added to the development, as part of the latest plans, taking the total number to 51. The council’s policy dictates that affordable housing should make up 40 per cent of proposed developments. Although Solum’s financial viability report stated the scheme would make a loss at having just 10 per cent of affordable homes, the developer still agreed to provide the housing.
Despite adding a further 65 homes, increasing the units by almost 15 per cent, the updated plans will not significantly change how financially feasible the Guildford Station scheme is as a whole, according to Solum.
Objecting to the scheme, the Guildford Society claims it will be a “damaging development” due to the mass, scale and impact on the station. The group argued the new application should be considered alongside the previous scheme and there should be a new financial viability assessment.
The Society also claimed the developer has “failed to deliver the housing it committed to the government inspector” at the planning appeal. Single one-bedroom apartments have almost doubled under the revised plans from 113 to 225, and the amount of three-bedroom units have been cut by over a third (from 14 to 9).
But the developer states the change in housing mix is “reflective of the market needs of a town centre location” and makes the most efficient use of land and contribution to the housing need.
No additional car parking is being proposed at the site, which will be roughly less than a five minute walk from the train station. Part of the original application, a multi-storey car park of 633 spaces will also be accessible for residents next to the train station.
