Housing Flats plans approved despite concern over build-to-rent schemes

PLANS have been approved for hundreds of new canal-side flats in Bristol despite concerns over expensive rents and claims they won't ever be “homes.

- Alex SEABROOK Local democracy reporter

Developers now have planning permission from Bristol City Council to build 434 homes east of Temple Meads on Silverthorne Lane on an empty industrial plot of land.

Studio Hive already had permission to build 371 homes on plots two and three of Silverthorne Lane, at a development known as the Iron Works. But they applied for permission to increase this by 63 more apartments, as well as new businesses on the ground floors of the buildings.

The plans were approved by seven votes to two by the development control B committee this week. The application parked a wider debate about build-to-rent developments, an increasingly common way for new apartments to be rented and not sold. The flats would be split across several buildings, with the tallest reaching 14 storeys in height.

The developers are paying £1.1 million towards new affordable housing elsewhere in Bristol. Along the whole of Silverthorne Lane, several new buildings are planned. On the eastern end, student flats have almost finished being constructed, and next to them will be a new high school. And laboratories and offices for the University of Bristol haven't got permission yet.