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Go-ahead for revised Exeter police station housing project

Wednesday, 3 June 2026 06:00

By Guy Henderson, Local Democracy Reporter

The number of affordable units in a massive new housing complex on the site of a former Exeter police station is to be cut.

Developer NCO (Seven) Ltd was given permission last year to build more than 800 studios and student flats on the site of the derelict former Heavitree Road police station, which has become a target for vandalism, fires and anti-social behaviour.
But a wrangle over the number of ‘affordable’ private rent units in the development has delayed the project for months.
The proposal is for 399 student flats and 414 co-living studios to be constructed in buildings up to six storeys high. At the time the permission was given, the number of ‘affordable’ units in the co-living section was set at 83.
But Vacant Building Credit regulations around the use of so-called ‘brownfield’ sites mean the developer has more leeway, and NCO (Seven) wanted to cut the number to 39.
Exeter City Council’s planning committee took another look at the plan in light of the reduction, and heard that there had been a ‘significant disagreement’ with the developer over how the Vacant Building Credit was calculated.
However, the applicant agreed to a revised figure of 61 affordable homes in the development, or 60 plus a financial contribution of just over £10,000 towards the delivery of affordable housing schemes elsewhere.
The £10,000 figure is calculated according to a nationwide formula. The committee was also advised that insisting on more than 61 affordable units would have been a difficult position to defend at an appeal.
“This has been a long and drawn-out process,” said chair of the planning committee Cllr Paul Knott (Lab, Exwick). “The 83 units proposed were my base point. That’s what tilted the balance for me towards making this acceptable.
“I found a lot of things I didn’t like, but this development is needed to replace that horrible site that is there at the moment.”
The site has been empty since 2021, and was the target of at least three deliberate fires last winter, two of them in the same week.
The committee eventually voted to allow the drop in the number of affordable units..
 

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