Sheffield and PTA deadlocked on affordability

Proposals by PTA Developments to demolish a former gospel meeting hall in favour of 53 apartments head to planning committee facing rejection over affordable homes commitments.

Officers recommend refusal for the plans, to be considered at Sheffield City Council’s planning & highways committee meeting on 10 December, on the grounds that the applicant has not to date agreed to provide one on-site first home and a commuted sum for offsite delivery.

The report prepared for committee said that “despite the Local Planning Authority trying to work with the applicant in a positive and proactive manner it was not possible to reach an agreed solution in negotiations”.

PTA Developments acquired the site in 2022.

The proposals

The application site amounts to 2.4 acres south of Carter Knowle Road, which links the key radial routes Ecclesall Road South and Abbeydale Road, three miles south-west of the city centre.

As set out in the report, the southern part includes a vacant single-storey meeting hall constructed in the 1980s, together with a car park. The remainder of the site comprises a deep basin of undeveloped land, where some trees were removed in 2018, also the year the hall’s occupant departed.

This sits 5.75m below the car park level, wrapping around two houses on Carter Knowle Road.

In the initial plans, 67 apartments were proposed across five blocks, one of them sitting in the basin.

Since its submission in November 2023, plans have been amended, with the basin block removed, and a proposed landscaped deck between blocks also removed, along with the undercroft parking it would have provided.

Working with Urbana, Grayscale Architecture and Weddles Landscape Design, the developer proposes 13 two-bedroom apartments and 40 three-bedroom apartments.

The council’s view

Sheffield City Council said it had received 42 objections including from Sheffield/Ecclesall Green Party; from Millhouses, Ecclesall & Carter Knowle Community Group; and from local ward councillors to the original project, the reworked proposals being welcomed more warmly, with just 15 objections.

In the face of those protesting “over-development” is the question of actual supply: Sheffield cannot currently demonstrate a four-year housing supply, which could potentially bring into play the ‘titled balance’ in favour of development.

Affordability though is the sticking point at Carter Knowle Road: the site sits within a part of Sheffield where the planning requirement would normally be for 30% of homes to be affordable.

PTA plans two- and three-bedroom apartments for the site. Credit: planning documents

The council and its advisor CP Viability do agree with the applicant that it is unrealistic to expect this volume of on-site affordable homes, given the proposal is for large apartments in a desirable area, but are unmoving in their request for a commuted sum for off-site delivery.

PTA’s original submission had included a report claiming the scheme could not be made viable at all with affordable homes, however CP disputed this, suggesting that various costs have been over-estimated.

Although there is more agreement over likely costs for the reworked proposal, the parties are still in disagreement, with CP’s final verdict – after months of back-and-forth over estimates, land values and other issues – being that an affordable homes contribution of £684,000 could be made, and that one “first home” should be provided on-site.

The officer report concluded that “the amendments to the scheme agreed throughout the course of the application have resulted in a well-designed development, but the application is nonetheless recommended for refusal, due to the applicant’s unwillingness to make a policy-compliant affordable housing contribution”.

PTA responds

PTA is very much a locally-focused business, a privately-owned developer and construction business with a lettings arm and a kitchens business within the group.

Working primarily in Sheffield’s south-west, it describes itself as a firm “with generations of experience,” listing a roster of completed developments on its website, including Dore Lodge, the conversion of Abbeydale Hall, and the high-end gastro-pub mini-chain Pointing Dog.

In a statement provided to Place Yorkshire, the firm said: “PTA have worked very closely with officers to propose an exemplary scheme that will deliver critically needed new homes in an area of extremely high demand. However, this is a challenging site with various constraints that makes it very costly to develop, especially in current market conditions.

“This means that, unfortunately, it is not possible to contribute towards affordable housing provision, but sadly the Council have not taken on board the evidence that we have shared to demonstrate this. We therefore think it’s entirely wrong that officers are therefore recommending the refusal of what is a truly excellent proposal, that is fully supported by the Council in all matters but one.

“As per the usual planning process the council will be receiving more than £1.1m in CIL contributions and, due to a covenant on the site, will be receiving a further payment of £500,000.

“This reflects a broader picture in which the realities of the housing and economic crises in this country are not being appropriately acknowledged or responded to by our political leaders and local decision makers. After all, it is an increase in the supply of houses that will make homes more affordable and not these one-off contributions that actually reduce, or in this case remove, the incentive for a private company to deliver homes.”

PTA is working with ADS on viability.

Sheffield City Council told Place that it cannot comment on planning applications awaiting a decision.

All documents relating to the application can be viewed on Sheffield’s planning portal with the reference 23/03296/FUL.