Torus is a registered provider of social housing, owning circa 9,000 homes within the Warrington Borough. It is a key partner in the delivery of homes within Warrington town centre and has already committed to two apartment schemes at Academy Way (144 units) and Palmyra Square (29 units) for the rent to buy market. It has also acquired the Mr Smith?s site in the Town Centre Riverside quarter (as defined in the Town Centre SPD), with a view to delivering additional new homes in the future to meet local needs.

Concern is expressed in relation to point 5 of policy DEV1 which sets out minimum densities for new Residential development. With specific regard to development within the town centre, it is clear that the densities proposed are aimed towards high-rise development with limited car parking provision, yet at the time of writing no market intelligence has been published around the scale of development that the market can support. Consequently, it is believed that important questions around what a sustainable community should comprise including details around overall market capacity, the correct balance between houses and apartments, preferred tenures and product types still need to be addressed before densities should be set. The minimum densities set out in the Local Plan for the town centre (130 dwellings per hectare) are believed to be aspirational and could have the unwanted effect of raising expectations in terms of land value which will in turn challenge viability. The density set for the town centre would also rule out the provision of family homes e.g. town houses, which would be well very placed in some of the outlying areas of the town centre creating active frontages more in tune with the scale of existing properties. It should also be noted that as a landlord and land owner, Torus does not have a preference for high-rise apartment schemes as they are more difficult to manage and maintain.

Torus is a registered provider of social housing, owning circa 9,000 homes within the Warrington Borough. It is also a Homes England Strategic Partner with an ambitious development programme and is committed to delivering new homes in Warrington.

As a whole, Torus supports policy DEV2 which seeks the provision of additional affordable homes within the Borough.

Torus does, however, have some concerns including:

1. The Local Housing Allowance cap on affordable rents at part 5 of the policy - Whilst Torus clearly supports the requirement for rents to be set at an affordable level, there will be sites in some parts of the Warrington borough where this could test viability and could potentially deem what could have been an 100% affordable scheme undeliverable.
2. The emphasis on First Homes at point 6 of the policy, with a requirement for at least 25% of affordable homes to be delivered as this product - It is difficult to understand from the policy how this fits into overall affordable housing provision i.e. the 20% -30% as set out in parts 1-3 of the policy. It is also difficult to understand the implications of the requirement for First Homes on the provision of other affordable products such as shared ownership, rent to buy and affordable rent which most RPs favour.
3. The requirement at point 18 to provide housing for older people on all sites of 10 dwellings or more - It is believed that this is an unrealistic and undeliverable expectation that could potentially stretch viability on some schemes. Similarly, the same concern applies to the optional standards at points 15 and 16 of the policy, which requires all homes to meet M4(2) as standard with 10% meeting of new homes meeting M4 (3). It is noted, however, that in this case evidence can be provided to justfy a lower level of provision where the requirements are not technically or viably feasible.
4. The reference that is made to ?genuinely affordable? discounted market housing at part 7 of the policy - Further clarification is required around what a ?genuinely affordable? product is for the avoidance of doubt.