'Perfect storm' Housing schemes in limbo as building costs spiral

THE mission to solve Bristol's housing crisis by building blocks of flats on ‘brownfield’ industrial sites in inner city Bristol is experiencing a ‘perfect storm’ that is delaying or scrapping developments, the Post can reveal.

- Tristan CORK

With so many projects stuck in limbo, it could be four years before the next major residential development is finished, one industry expert in the city has warned.

The issue is so bad that plans to redevelop one key industrial area of the city - where Bristol City Council had drawn up a ‘masterplan’ to create almost a thousand new homes - appear to have been scuppered for years, after it was sold to a property investor who wants to keep it as an industrial area rather than build new homes there.

The sale of a vast area which was marketed as ‘Temple Gate’ - to a industrial buyer rather than a residential property developer - has sent shockwaves through Bristol's development industry and at City Hall. The land, on the south side of Mead Street, between Temple Meads and Totterdown, was the subject of the ‘Mead Street masterplan; drawn up by Bristol City Council, with a vision to turn the collection of industrial units and sites behind the Fowlers motorcycle dealer into a new suburb of Bristol with more than 900 new homes in tower blocks up to 22 storeys high.

When it was put for sale as a development opportunity, the land was instead sold to a property investment company who will refurbish and keep the existing industrial units rather than clear the site and build the hundreds of new homes proposed by the council.