Proposals to construct a purpose-built student accommodation block in the back garden of a seventeen-bedroom House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) in Pennsylvania Road have been dismissed at appeal.
Developer Jeremy Startup applied for full planning approval for the six-bedroom two-storey building in May last year, citing a similar student block in the back garden of a neighbouring property, which was granted planning consent in 2011, as a precedent.
The city council refused the application last November, saying the scheme “would prejudice the objective of creating a balanced community” in St James.
Proposed floor plans and elevations. Image: Ercle.
The planning inspector who dismissed the subsequent appeal against the council’s decision said that the proposals would “harm the character and appearance of the area” and would “dominate and have an overbearing effect” on the outlook from the rear of the property, which includes Devonshire Place orchard and play area.
He added that agreement between the applicant and the council that there is “considerable need for additional purpose-built student accommodation in Exeter of an appropriate scale and location” did not override consideration of other relevant local plan policies.
The inspector cited an existing local plan policy – which is not retained in the council’s new Exeter Local Plan – that student accommodation proposals should not change the character of neighbourhoods or create local community imbalances.
He said he had “no doubt that the immediate area around the appeal site already contains an imbalance in the community weighted towards students” and that the proposals would “add to the over concentration of student accommodation in the immediate area, create a further imbalance in the local community and further undermine the objective of creating a balanced community”.
Adding that the harm would outweigh “any benefit from the provision of further student accommodation”, and that the evidence that the provision of purpose-built student accommodation was not releasing housing stock for residential use, he determined that the proposals would result in a “harmful imbalance in the local community”.
In December last year Mr Startup also applied for planning consent for a six-bedroom purpose-built student accommodation block in the back garden of a thirteen-bedroom HMO he owns in nearby Union Road. The council refused it in June.
The application followed a December 2022 council decision to refuse a ten-bedroom purpose-built back garden student accommodation block at the same address, which was also upheld at appeal in October 2023.
According to the city council register, Mr Startup owned a total of twelve licensed HMOs in Exeter at the time, providing a total of 91 bedrooms. It is not known whether he also owned unlicensed HMOs in the city, or how many if so.
Unlicensed HMOs make up the bulk of Exeter residential housing that is being used for student accommodation, but the city council does not know how many there are or where they are located.
