A report temporarily published by Bristol City Council reveals its housing company has not told development partners it forecasts delays to hundreds of new homes. Goram Homes appears not to have been fully transparent with some of the developers it is teaming up with on up to six of the 14 projects in its “pipeline” for fear of worrying them or losing the confidence of the wider housing market in its ambitious programme of housing.
The controversial sections of Goram’s annual business plan were temporarily made public on the local authority’s website ahead of the proposals being scrutinised at a council meeting. They paint a less-than-optimistic picture of the timescales of several developments over the next few years, with proposed new blocks of flats in the city centre most at risk of delays compared with expectations in last year’s business plan.
The papers include a table listing the new projected start and completion dates that, the report says, was intentionally excluded from the main business plan because Goram is “forecasting the delivery of homes at a slower rate than we are advising our partners is required”. Bristol City Council has since taken down the report and replaced it with the redacted version, but we are publishing some of the information in the public interest because the public has a right to know about the apparent lack of transparency.
