An ambitious plan has been lodged by a pair of developers that could see their entire 150-homes scheme offering only affordable properties.
Developer Dorepark has collaborated with the Guinness Partnership, a registered provider of affordable housing, to submit the application for the homes on land at Cat and Fiddle, on Sidmouth Road in Clyst St Mary.
The site has been used for various things over the years, including a brick and tile works, kennels, car boot sales and an overspill car park.
While the planning application states that the scheme will offer 35 per cent affordable homes – equivalent to 53 of the properties – the agent for the applicants said that now a plan had been submitted, Guinness would be targeting funding to achieve its aspiration of making all the properties affordable.
“Because of the way funding arrangements work, Guinness had to submit an application first, but now that has been done, it allows them to try and secure grant funding to provide 100 per cent affordable housing on the site,” Iestyn John, a partner from agent Bell Cornwell said.
“An application unlocks the opportunity to secure more grant funding, but their objective and strong expectation will be for entirely affordable homes.”
Mr John said there would likely be a mix of tenures, including social rent, affordable rent and shared ownership to enable a wide range of residents to access them.
The need for housing in East Devon remains pressing, with a total of 2,886 households on the district’s housing waiting list, albeit 1,243 of those are classified in the lowest Band E, which deems that such applicants “do not have a housing need”, according to the criteria overseen by Devon Home Choice which administers housing applications.
More broadly, East Devon District Council is also behind when it comes the number of homes it needs to build over a five-year period, a target set by the government.
In its most recent confirmed figures for the 2024/25 financial year, it said it could only demonstrate a 3.5 year housing land supply compared to the necessary five.
It has an annual requirement of 1,168 homes over the five years between 2025 and 2030, but believed in March 2025 it was likely to deliver 4,092 in that period compared to the required 5,838.
That’s a shortfall of 1,746, meaning it is likely to be amenable to new applications providing they meet planning policies.
While the site for this latest application from Dorepark and Guinness is a green field, Mr John said the location was “very good” due to its accessible location for pedestrians and cyclists as well as drivers.
He said Clyst St Mary, which has a primary school, village hall, post office, pub and shop was within walking and cycling distance, while the A3052 has regular bus services that could take people to nearby locations for work, such as Winslade Park, Hill Barton Business Park, and Greendale Business Park, or to leisure sites, such as Crealy.
Mr John added that his client’s scheme “aligns exactly” with East Devon District’s masterplan for its forthcoming second new town, Marlcombe, noting that the location is “within and accords exactly with what that masterplan is proposing”.
It’s not yet clear when East Devon District Council’s planning committee will discuss the application.
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