Preston clears path for 443 homes
Planning committee members voted unanimously to remove a barrier standing in the way of Morris Homes delivering hundreds of properties in Cottam.
Preston City Council backed plans from Morris Homes and CEG to deliver 443 homes on 52 acres off William Young Way in April. However, the application returned for determination last week following talks between the developers and the local authority over affordable housing.
The April permission was handed down subject to the signing of a Section 106 agreement that contained an obligation to provide 10% of the homes as affordable and a viability review mechanism.
The mechanism would allow for the scheme’s profitability to be analysed independently in the future to see if additional contributions towards affordable housing could be made. It was proposed due to the fact the scheme offered bellow Preston City Council’s 30% affordable policy target.
However, the applicants said the mechanism was a barrier to securing funding and asked for it to be removed.
Instead, Morris and CEG asked Preston to factor into its thinking the amount of affordable housing being delivered on a neighbouring site.
Housebuilder Breck is delivering 102 affordable homes off Sidgreaves Lane immediately east of CEG and Morris Homes’ site. As this plot was previously being promoted by CEG for the same consortium of landowners attached to the 443-home scheme, the applicants argue a holistic approach to the affordable housing question should be taken.
Assessing the CEG/Morris scheme and the Breck one together as one project, the 30% target can be reached.
The upshot is that Morris will build 62 of the 443 homes as affordable. Taken together, with the 102 homes being built by Breck on the neighbouring plot, 164 of the combined 545 homes across the two schemes will be affordable.
The committee voted unanimously in favour of the proposal and the developers now have until 25 September to sign a Section 106 agreement.
The professional team includes David C Smith Architects, Ascerta, Barnes Walker, Banners Gate and UES.
Documents relating to the scheme can be viewed on Preston’s planning portal, reference 06/2025/0240.
At the same meeting, plans to convert the former Odeon on Preston’s Port Way into self-storage were given the green light, as was the demolition and replacement of a student scheme off St Thomas Road with a six-storey block containing 31 flats.
BDW Trading’s plans for 60 homes in Cottam were deferred.
The plans can be viewed on Preston’s planning portal by searching for reference numbers 06/2026/0240, 06/2025/0620 and 06/2026/0065 respectively.
