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.
Read more: List of Bristol City Council-owned sites set for more than 3,100 new homes
However, while the housing firm admits in the since-redacted section that it “does not wish to concern our partners that projects can’t proceed at pace”, it also confirms that Goram remains “committed to delivering new homes at pace across our pipeline”. There is no suggestion that the developments it hopes to complete over the next decade, totalling more than 3,000 homes, are at risk.
The unredacted version of the business plan said Goram’s projects where work had yet to start on site, which are the vast majority, had estimated housing numbers that would “evolve” as it procured delivery partners and progressed through the design and planning stages. It said: “This is a prudently cautious estimate so as not to overstate revenue in the financial plan.”
The redacted section, which gives more context, said a slowdown in the housing market caused by record-high construction costs and rising prices for materials had seen sales rates fall by half since early last year. It said this had impacted Goram’s projects, especially the high-density flats in the city centre, so those had been excluded from its financial planning in the business plan to ensure the company maintained financial stability while the economy remained uncertain, although this did not mean it would pause those sites.
The report said: “We this [sic] business plan will continue to progress all sites in our pipeline and will provide updates to the shareholder as individual projects move forward. We have built our delivery forecasts for the whole programme, covering all projects within the Goram Homes pipeline.”
In a table of its proposed developments it then lists those which are on target for delivery and those that have slipped from the expected date in the 2022 business plan. We have chosen not to republish these details and others that appear to fall in the category of commercially sensitive material.
But the report said: “The above table hasn’t been included in the business plan as we are forecasting the delivery of homes at a slower rate than we are advising our partners is required. We have built this business plan to be worse case scenario, presenting a prudent and cautious approach.
“From a commercial perspective, we do not wish to concern our partners that projects can’t proceed at pace, or that we lack commitment to the delivery of a project. We remain committed to delivering new homes at pace across our pipeline.
“As set out in the main business plan, our priority for 2023 is to progress a range of developments into the delivery phase. This is also a key period within which to maintain confidence in our ambition in the eyes of the wider development market.
“We will continue to work with expert advisors and joint venture partners to progress more challenging sites and will include each project within future business plans once we know we have a suitable solution.” The unredacted report said: “By the end of the 2023 Business Plan we will be progressing through the planning process on: Dovercourt Road, New Fosseway Road, Baltic Wharf, SS Great Britain Car Park, Portwall Lane Car Park (Redcliffe Way), Castle Park.”
Two new sites have been added to the 14 in its existing development pipeline – The Grove council-owned car park on the banks of the Floating Harbour for 70 flats and new shops, and Western Harbour, the new name the council has given to the Cumberland Basin. The business plan will be discussed in both public and private sessions of the overview & scrutiny management board on Tuesday.
It is not the first time the council has inadvertently published a report involving major planning developments in Bristol. Three years ago it inadvertently released new details about the controversial Temple Island deal, where the authority teamed up with Legal & General to develop the derelict site formerly earmarked for an arena that will now become hundreds of new homes, office blocks and a big hotel and conference centre.
Pages that appeared blank actually still contained the exempt information that was the same colour type font as the background, which could be simply copy and pasted into a document to reveal them.
Read next:
Bristol city centre car park could be built on with 70 flats planned
Western Harbour set for no high-rise blocks as Bristol City Council launches next phase
Details of Temple Island deal accidentally released by council
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