Plans approved for 96-home 'affordable' housing development in Hendon

Plans for a major affordable housing development on Wearside have been given the green light by city councillors.

Members of Sunderland City Council’s Planning and Highways Committee, at a meeting this week, gave the go-ahead to housing plans in the city’s Hendon area.

The land, which sits off Harrogate Street and Amberley Street, has been vacant for decades since being cleared, and roads still run through patches of grass where dozens of homes once stood.

In recent years, there have been moves to make the site ready for housing, with Sunderland City Council’s cabinet approving an agreement for the site’s ‘comprehensive redevelopment’ back in 2020.

In May, 2022, scheme developers Thirteen Housing Group Ltd submitted plans for 103 homes on the brownfield land, with plans for the entire development to offer affordable rent.

However, the scheme faced delays and was later amended to provide ‘more traditional’ homes, rather than the ‘modular buildings’ using modern methods of construction as originally planned.

The number of homes in the housing scheme was also reduced from 103 to 96, with the development offering a mix of bungalows and houses.

The proposed housing mix, revealed by applicants last year, included 21 two-bedroom bungalows, 41 two-bedroom houses, 28 three-bedroom houses and six larger four-bedroom houses.

Sunderland City Council planning officers, in a report prepared ahead of this week’s decision-making meeting, had recommended the housing plans for approval.

Council planners welcomed the design of the scheme and proposals for 100 per cent affordable housing, as well as the “significant contribution” to the “overall provision, availability and choice of affordable housing in the city”.

Plans also included sustainable drainage, open green space and communal gardens to help “promote community cohesion and social interaction”.

After being put to the vote at a meeting on February 5, 2024, the housing plans won unanimous support from members of the Planning and Highways Committee.

A representative for the applicant Thirteen said the scheme would provide a “high-quality and sustainable regeneration of this brownfield site” while “delivering many social and environmental benefits”.

Applicants also noted that the site had been “crying out for development”, while council planners added that “viability issues” had prompted amendments to the most recent housing plans for the site.

Following a question from Planning and Highways Committee chair, councillor Melanie Thornton, planning officers reassured councillors that land contamination issues around lead on the site could be mitigated through planning conditions.

The benefits of regenerating the land, which has sat vacant since the 1990s, were also noted by members of the committee.

Councillor Michael Dixon told the meeting: “I’m going to support the application and I’m highly delighted with the scheme.

“But it just does seem a shame that it has taken so long to get to this position”.

Councillor Ciaran Morrissey, Hendon ward member, added: “I think that irrespective of why it’s taken so long for the application to come through, it really is a fantastic piece of investment in the city.

“I will certainly be voting for it, it’s the right homes in the right places”.

As part of the section 106 process, which allows councils to secure funds from developers towards community improvements, transport infrastructure and education, Thirteen is expected to make financial contributions.

This includes nearly £200,000 to “support education provision”, as well as around £8,000 for” the provision of allotments” and around £53,485 towards “ecological mitigation and management measures”.

The ecology contribution is linked to the impacts of new housing on “European-protected coastal sites and species”.

Developers hope to start work on site in Spring, 2024.

More information on the Hendon housing plans can be viewed via Sunderland City Council’s planning portal website by searching reference: 22/00970/FUL