After a 10-year battle, homes for local people will finally be built
How the new homes would look Picture: Sovereign Network Group(Image: Sovereign Network Group)
Work could start this year on a prominent empty industrial site in Bristol after a 10-year battle to be allowed to build new affordable homes there.
The former John Peer clothing factory closed down in 1980, and was later used as an office furniture store before being an empty eyesore off the Bath Road in Brislington for years.
But now, Sovereign Housing – now known as SNG – has finally been granted permission to build 90 affordable homes there in its place.
The old factory building was demolished last year, but SNG still had to obtain detailed planning permission for what it wanted to do – and the transformation of the land between Bath Road and Tramway Road can now take place.
SNG’s plans are to build 90 homes in total – a mix of four blocks of flats and a row of seven houses. A total of 51 flats would have one bedroom, and 32 would have two. Nine flats would be accessible for disabled people.
All 90 of the new homes would be classed as ‘affordable’, and available to rent for people on the council’s HomeChoice housing waiting list.
Emerging proposals for redevelopment of the John Peer building site at 493-499 Bath Road, Brislington for new affordable homes, by housing association SNG(Image: SNG)
Of the 90 flats, 27 of them will be rented out at ‘social rent’ levels – the most affordable of ‘affordable housing’, while the other 63 will be rented at ‘affordable rent’ levels, which is generally 80 per cent of the market rent for a similar flat in the same area.
There were objections from local people – including concerns about increasing pressures on parking and health services. The new development will have an access road in from Tramway Road, and there will be 34 car parking spaces in the development of 90 new homes, and 146 cycle parking spaces.
The city council planning officers gave permission to the plan without the request going before councillors – the officer using delegated authority said the location of the site right on the main A4 road meant that it had good public transport links.
The seven townhouses will be three- and four-bed, while the flats will be one- and two-bed flats. The tallest block of flats will be fronting on to Bath Road, and will be five storeys tall, with the other blocks three storeys.
(Image: Sovereign Network Group)
“This scheme will make an important contribution to meeting Bristol’s affordable housing need, including the delivery of much-needed social rent and family homes,” said the man in charge of housing at Bristol City Council, Cllr Barry Parsons (Green, Easton ).
“We have a longstanding partnership with SNG, one of our HomesWest partners, and have worked alongside them for a number of years to help bring the development forward.
“The scheme is a positive example of collaborative working, showing how the council and a housing association can work together to unlock brownfield land and deliver high-quality affordable homes for people on Bristol’s housing register,” he added.
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There have been plans to demolish the John Peer factory building and build new homes on the site for at least 10 years, but nothing had come of any of them until now.
Back in 2016, SNG bought the site and came forward with a plan for 126 new homes that eventually evolved into a plan for 146 new homes in 2018, but that was refused under the Labour-run authority. The developer appealed during the Covid pandemic years but lost that appeal, and eventually in 2024 SNG came forward with a new, less dense scheme that was tweaked in 2025 and has now been approved.
the now-demolished John Peer site off the Bath Road in Brislington, pictured on Wednesday 25 September 2024(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
Under Community Infrastructure Levy rules, SNG will have to pay a total of more than £650,000 to the council for local infrastructure improvements.
“We’re delighted to be able to proceed with this excellent scheme, which will deliver much-needed affordable homes in Bristol,” said Charlie Stevens, the regional boss of SNG.
“It helps meet urgent housing need while creating a high-quality development that positively responds to the character of the site and its surrounding area,” he added.