The tallest building will be 14 storeys in height
A file image of the Feeder Canal near Silverthorne Lane (Image: Square Bay)
Plans have been approved for hundreds of new canal-side flats in Bristol despite concerns over expensive rents. Developers now have planning permission from Bristol City Council to build 434 homes east of Temple Meads on Silverthorne Lane on an empty industrial plot of land.
Studio Hive already had permission to build 371 homes on plots two and three of Silverthorne Lane, at a development known as the Iron Works. But they applied for permission to increase this by 63 more apartments, as well as new businesses on the ground floors of the buildings.
The plans were approved by seven votes to two by the development control B committee on Wednesday, August 27. The application parked a wider debate about build-to-rent developments, an increasingly common way for new apartments to be rented and not sold. The flats would be split across several buildings, with the tallest reaching 14 storeys in height.
James Howard, development director at Studio Hive, said: “This improves the existing permission, delivering 434 high quality homes in a key regeneration area. It’s one of the first residential-led developments in Bristol Temple Quarter.
“We’re proud of the design and we think it’ll enhance the area, creating public space, a canal-side walkway, and new green areas to boost biodiversity, complementing the council’s wider vision for the area. This will deliver much-needed homes and community benefits.”
The developers are paying £1.1 million towards new affordable housing elsewhere in Bristol. Along the whole of Silverthorne Lane, several new buildings are planned. On the eastern end, student flats have almost finished being constructed, and next to them will be a new high school. And laboratories and offices for the University of Bristol haven’t got permission yet.
A new footpath is planned along the northern bank of the Feeder Canal, which has always been closed off to the public. Restaurants and bars are also planned on the ground floor of the new buildings in the Iron Works development. A listed wall alongside the canal will be protected. The new homes would be connected to the district heat network, instead of having gas boilers.
How the development on Silverthorne Lane could look(Image: AHMM)
One concern was that all the homes would be rented, with none for sale nor affordable. Green Councillor Lisa Stone denied the flats would be “homes”, claiming this was “emotive language”. She added: “You call these homes. They’re units. Rental accommodation often isn’t seen as a home, because it’s usually in and out, professional couples.”
Green Cllr Guy Poultney added: “Rent in Bristol is unaffordable and has been for a long time. I appreciate there are people who will say the answer to the housing crisis is just build more houses. This isn’t housing, this is an investment vehicle. This is money being sucked out of the pockets of people in the city to provide a basic human necessity.
‘Not good enough’
“The developer here is making £13 million in profit and saying ‘terribly sorry, we don’t have enough for social housing’. The rental value of this scheme is around the £10 million a year mark, just in terms of rental income that we’re not allowed to take into account. I don’t think this is good enough for this city, sorry.”
Only 16 parking spaces would be created, but the development site is a short walk from Temple Meads train station and close to the city centre too. The site is currently empty, and was formerly used as a foundry, common with the industrial heritage of the wider area. Constructing on land that used to have buildings is preferred in national planning policy than on fields.
Labour Cllr Don Alexander, chair of the committee, said: “450 units on a brownfield site is 450 units that aren’t on meadows, or on woods and forests. It’s really important to help developers to make these sites sustainable financially, so that we can have this kind of environmentally sustainable building in our city. This is a balance.
“For some of us, we look at it and see a development of 450 units of accommodation where people will walk their children to school, they’ll walk to the station, they’ll not need a car and they’ll not use a drop of fossil fuel to heat their home. For some of us who believe that the climate crisis is urgent, that’s immensely attractive. But that’s part of the balance.”
Voting in favour of the homes were Green Cllrs Stone and Paula O’Rourke; Labour Cllrs Lisa Durston, Fabian Breckels and Alexander; and Conservative Cllr Bador Uddin and Liberal Democrat Caroline Gooch. Voting against were Green Cllrs Poultney and Mohamed Makawi.
Build-to-rent developments are increasingly common in other British cities like Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham. Earlier this year another developer claimed Bristol was “falling behind” with build-to-rent developments. On the one hand, there are benefits to tenants of professional landlords compared to individual ones for example, but rents can also be very high.