The council has approved the land swap that gives it 92 homes at Bath Western Riverside, due by December 2029. Up to 219 more depend on funding.
Bath and North East Somerset Council has approved the deal that should give it 92 affordable homes on the old Bath gasworks. The officer decision, dated 1 October, clears the way to exchange contracts with Berkeley Homes on the second phase of Bath Western Riverside (decision record).
The homes will be owned and managed by B&NES Homes, the council’s own housing provider. The target is to finish them by December 2029.
This is a different site from the Old Gas Works on Upper Bristol Road, where 272 co-living studios were refused in September.
What the council has signed up to
The decision lets the council’s Director of Capital and Housing Delivery enter a set of agreements with Berkeley. In short:
- a land swap. Berkeley hands the council the freehold of a plot called Block G. In return the council transfers its own part of the site to Berkeley, with balancing payments so each side gets its agreed price.
- 92 homes in Block G. Berkeley builds them under an existing planning permission, reference 22/03224/EFUL, and the council takes them as affordable homes.
- an option on more. The council can buy around 140 homes in the “Linear Blocks” if it finds the money, plus 79 of Berkeley’s own planning-obligation affordable homes.
- optional fit-out works to upgrade the finish of Block G, at extra cost.
The land swap only completes once Berkeley has built Block G to “golden brick”, the stage where foundations are in. Neither side has published the price. The financial terms sit in exempt appendices to the original July cabinet report.
The numbers
The cabinet approved the approach on 2 July, under plan reference E3723. Its report sets out the scale (cabinet papers):
- Phase 1, committed in 2010, has built 854 homes, 25 per cent of them affordable
- Phase 2 is planned for around 1,000 homes on the former gasworks
- the council is aiming for about 311 affordable homes there, roughly 30 per cent
- the council owns 31.5 per cent of the Phase 2 land and Berkeley’s St William business owns 68.5 per cent
- Homes England has put in £18.2 million to clean up the land and build the roads and services
Those three parts add up to the 311. Only Block G is paid for. The report says the council’s medium-term budget can cover borrowing for the 92 homes, at the Homes England grant it expects. The borrowing would be repaid over 40 years, partly from rents. Everything beyond Block G “will be subject to future Council budget setting” and more Homes England grant.
When it could happen
The cabinet report gives target dates, all subject to funding and planning:
| Stage | Target |
|---|---|
| Land swap completes | March 2027 |
| Block G finished | December 2029 |
| Linear Blocks finished | 2032 |
The council’s part of the site does not yet have planning permission. Berkeley is to carry out the planning work for the whole site under the deal.
Why the council took this route
The report weighs two alternatives. Building the homes itself, through its development company Aequus, would leave all the risk with the council and could produce “minimal or even negative value”, it says. Selling the land on the open market would lose control of how many affordable homes get built.
Cllr Matt McCabe, cabinet member for housing, said in June that taking a more active role would “help us accelerate delivery”. He added that “there is still a long way to go and decisions still to be made” (council release, 24 June).
What it means for you
If you are on the housing register, these are council-owned homes in central Bath, in Westmoreland ward, but not before late 2029 at the earliest. The mix of social rent and other affordable tenures for the later blocks has not been decided. The cabinet report mentions possible mid-market rent homes for essential workers.
The council is building affordable homes elsewhere too, including new council homes in Keynsham. For planning decisions across the city, see our Bath planning news page.
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