ON THE AGENDA
Developer appeals Heavitree Road police station & magistrates court student/co-living blocks refusal
Devon & Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner and offshore-registered PBSA Heavitree Road S.A.R.L. seek to overturn Exeter City Council decision to reject application for 1035-bed development beside The Gorge.
NEWS
First Exeter 'co-living' rooms advertised to let from £1,045-£1,360 per month plus council tax
£40,800 minimum salary to rent 26.5 square metre room in six storey 133-unit block, promoted as two minutes' walk from university St Luke's campus, requiring tenants among top 20% of Exeter earners – or with wealthy guarantors.
ANALYSIS
Council student accommodation policy proposals overlook 50-80% of student-occupied housing stock
Article 4 direction & HMO SPD consultation omits key information, confuses licensing and planning matters, misrepresents NPPF requirements and proposes barely discernible changes in place of needed new Exeter Local Plan policies.
NEWS
University comes clean on true Exeter campus student numbers over past two decades
Figures obtained under Freedom of Information Act confirm between 7,500 and 12,000 more students based in city each year than university numbers suggest – until this year – with major implications for council planning policy.
COMMENT
Council development levy changes are insufficiently evidenced and don't meet city infrastructure needs
Exeter City Council and Liveable Exeter partners impose faulty typology driven by policy objectives while ignoring new local plan, evidence base and statutory funding statement and excluding residential and retail charges from review.
NEWS
Information Commissioner to investigate university over student accommodation numbers refusal
Compliance failure follows university admission that nearly 39,000 students based at Exeter campuses in 2021-22, suggesting around three quarters of city's private rented housing stock occupied by students.
NEWS
University says 39,000 students – nearly 30% of city's population – based at Exeter campuses in 2021-22
Freedom of information request reveals 11,500 more students than published FTE figures with major implications for council planning policy but university refuses to disclose numbers in PBSA vs residential housing stock.
ANALYSIS
Heavitree Road developer gets sixth pitch for student/co-living complex
Eight design iterations, six council meetings, four consultation rounds and two deferrals combine to impede public participation in planning process on key Liveable Exeter site and increase chances of decision being overturned at appeal.
ANALYSIS
Flood risk threatens to sink Haven Banks redevelopment plans
Proposals for 434 rental units accommodating up to 1,167 people on 1.7 hectare Liveable Exeter site would deliver extreme housing densities that deny amenity to prospective occupants while inflicting significant impacts on existing residents.
COMMENT
Exeter Development Fund: rent extraction, unaffordable housing and gentrification, but not net zero
Exeter City Futures' private debt-driven Liveable Exeter property development financing scheme is under fire from councillors who say it is based on insufficiently-evidenced assumptions and won't meet Exeter's housing needs.
NEWS
Council rejects calls for greater community involvement in Exeter planning policy and decisions
Council defends existing approach despite Statement of Community Involvement consultation producing just 17 responses, and won't do more to promote neighbourhood planning despite prospect of enhanced community powers.
ANALYSIS
Will Exeter College fence off Exwick community playing fields?
Exeter College redevelopment plans at Exwick and Flowerpot Playing Fields threaten a three metre fence around publicly-accessible playing fields and their replacement with artificial turf. Will it change course after widespread objections?
NOTES & SKETCHES
Has the county council learned its lesson?
Judging by the “ample space” for greenfield business park and housing development promoted in the “Clean Growth Vision for the West of East Devon” it commissioned from City Science Corporation (an Exeter City Futures sister company) for submission to the East Devon Local Plan consultation, it seems not.
ANALYSIS
Pennsylvania petitioners expose fifteen years of flawed student accommodation policy-making
City council policies based on faulty premises, inaccurate information and miscalculated projections have failed to prevent mass student occupation of Exeter residential housing stock despite the proliferation of Purpose Built Student Accommodation across the city.
ANALYSIS
Exeter City Council approves second Harlequins 'co-living' block, sealing fate of Paul Street
Previously rejected vision will now form basis of 'abysmal' and 'poorly thought through' Liveable Exeter development of 383 'units of accommodation' with increased proportion of substandard studios but reduced economic value to city.
ANALYSIS
Prospects improve for pop-up Paris Street and Sidwell Street tenants wanting to stay on development site
Council leader Phil Bialyk says it will be 'some years' before planned CityPoint redevelopment affects repurposed retail units, and that council 'would want' to accommodate artistic and cultural initiatives and independent local businesses 'should they wish to remain'.
ANALYSIS
University drops environmental standards for huge student flats development with council approval
University of Exeter and Exeter City Council both ignore own policies in plans to demolish 30 buildings and construct 50,000m2 of new student accommodation, telling us more about their priorities than their climate leadership claims.
NOTES & SKETCHES
Longbrook Street PBSA gifted second life
Exeter City Council planning officers have approved the renewal of planning permission for an eight storey 108-bed student accommodation block on the site of the King Billy public house which had previously been granted in April 2018 and since lapsed.
ANALYSIS
First Liveable Exeter homes are substandard 'warehousing for people' which is student accommodation 'in all but name'
Harlequins shopping centre redevelopment approved by Exeter City Council includes 251 co-living units in seven storey tower block despite widespread opposition from conservation charities and community campaigners who have since appealed to the Secretary of State to call in the decision.
ANALYSIS
Exeter's first 'zero carbon' housing development includes 96 car parking spaces for 40 homes
Exeter City Council has approved plans to develop land at Pinhoe with a parking ratio of 2.4 cars per household as part of an 'exemplar scheme for future residential development in the city' while accepting that zero carbon construction comes 'at a cost to the provision of affordable housing'.
ANALYSIS
Mount Radford Lawn development proposals conflict with St Leonards community vision
Exeter Deaf Academy hopes to sell a school playing field to developers who plan to build luxury homes. Local residents have other ideas about how best to use the land. A dispute is looming over an historic green space driven by prospective profit from planning gain.
ANALYSIS
Clifton Hill sports centre – the background
Storm Emma met the Beast from the East and dumped a huge amount of snow on the roof of Exeter's Clifton Hill sports centre, setting off a chain reaction which has ignited two campaigns and put Exeter City Council's approaches to competence and openness into sharp focus.
