Bristol City Council had to go back to the drawing board on plans to build more than 1,400 new homes on a park in South Bristol - because the council scrapped its own bidding process.
Bristol Live can reveal that a ‘new approach’ announced by the Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees just before Christmas was actually prompted by a failure to find any developer willing to sign up to the council's plans for Hengrove Park.
The former site of Whitchurch Airport has been earmarked for development for decades, but apart from a few smaller packages of land around the edges, has never been built on.
READ MORE: Council announces new approach for Hengrove Park
The plans took a step forward after 2017 when new housing chief Paul Smith worked up a new plan after extensive consultation, with around 1,500 new homes and a new community hub were planned for the site.
The former councillor told Bristol Live that the Hengrove Park scheme would be his lasting legacy, but despite the fact it got outline planning permission, work on the starting the big development has since stalled, with the council working to find someone to join with them to build it.
Council chiefs spent much of 2021 with Hengrove Park out to a procurement process to find a development partner that would join with the council to get the homes built.
Then in the week before Christmas, Marvin Rees and housing chief Tom Renhard announced they had decided to change tack and work on a new way of getting the homes built.
That new way is set to be announced in detail at the end of the month, but Bristol Live has been told the reason why the procurement process was scrapped was because no developer wanted to get involved.
Cllr Tom Renhard, who took over from Paul Smith as the council’s cabinet lead on housing, said he thinks he can get a better deal.
The 30 per cent affordable earmarked originally for Hengrove Park is to be increased to 50 per cent, and now the site will be at the forefront of a new drive to get more council homes built.
“Where we own the land we’ve got a lot more say and lot more leverage in terms of what we do with the land and what we want to get out of it,” he said.
“We think we can get a better deal for Bristol and Bristol’s residents. I really wanted us to see a step change, certainly in terms of our own land - why can’t we secure more affordable housing?
“Whether that’s council housing or delivered through a housing association, and that’s really reflected in what we took to cabinet this week - we’re going to be quadrupling the number of council houses we’re going to build over the next five to seven years to over 2,000 and then within the 30 year business plan, what we’re looking at is 9,000 council homes over a 30 year business plan which totally shows the scale of ambition that we’re trying to get across.
“So that’s a change in trying to get more council homes built but that’s more affordable housing built in the city, and it represents at £1.8 billion over the 30 years,” he added.
“That’s really exciting for us, and that’s reflective of some of the thinking at Hengrove. We’re going to be announcing in about ten days what we’re doing with Hengrove Park. I’m quite excited by the direction of travel, is what I will say.
“We will be looking to do more on the affordability front than what was going to be there - it was going to be 30 per cent originally, and I’ll be looking for at least 50 per cent.
“At the point we pulled the procurement no one had submitted their bids - it’s fair to say that. We wanted to review the objectives, and think ‘can we do better here?’, and also think about the climate and ecological emergencies as much as anything else, and rethink our aspirations there, and wanting to be far more ambitious,” he added.
At the time of the announcement that the original procurement process had been dropped, Cllr Renhard said the council would be looking at ‘innovative approaches’ to deliver new homes more sustainably and quickly.
“Hengrove Park is a major opportunity for Bristol to deliver the new homes we need in a way that sets an example of how high-quality, low carbon and affordable homes can be delivered at pace,” he said.
“We have decided to end the current procurement process because we believe there is a better way to meet our objectives for affordable housing in the city.
“By looking again at how we approach the scheme we can ensure that we maximise the highest number of affordable homes for those in need, as well as providing the community facilities and infrastructure that will support an inclusive community in the future,” he added.
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