NONE of the 290 homes set to be built in Redhill town centre will be affordable – because developers would not make a healthy profit.
This is the claim from one councillor, who branded the situation "a scam".
Developers building flats on the former Liquid and Envy site, Knowles House in High Street and at the railway station have all told Reigate and Banstead Borough Council their schemes would not be economic if they met the affordable housing quota.
Mar City, which wants to build 76 flats on the former nightclub site, was the latest homebuilder to get the go-ahead, despite concerns it would not provide cheaper homes.
According to the council's Affordable Housing strategy, adopted just three months ago, 30 per cent of homes in developments of more than 15 units, should be affordable.
At a planning committee meeting last Wednesday, Reigate and Banstead borough councillor Sarah Finch said: "It feels like a scam."
Mar City paid £1 million more for the site than former owners Angle Property.
Cllr Finch told the meeting: "It's because the new owner spent £2.5 million purchasing the site. So money that could have been spent providing much-needed affordable housing for our residents instead went into the pockets of the previous owner.
"If one developer sells on to another they can pocket the profit while the new owner claims they've got no money left for affordable housing."
The council hired consultants to check Mar City's claims, but viability tests showed the developer could avoid the authority's affordable housing requirements.
Peer Freeholds Limited, which wants to convert the offices at Knowles House on the corner of High Street and Cromwell Road into 64 flats, also proved its scheme would be unviable if it supplied cheaper homes.
And none of the 150 flats being built in the railway station and Waitrose development, given the go-ahead in 2013, will be at a discounted price.
Councillor for Redhill East Jonathan Essex called the situation a "scandal".
He said: "Developers are buying and selling properties until the point that when they get brought forward to planning (permission) there is no money for affordable housing.
"There's three blocks of flats that should have provided a decent number of homes at decent prices."
In 2012/13, the council failed to hit its target of building 100 affordable homes a year, with just 74 of the 469 new homes built assigned as either social/affordable rent or shared ownership.
Catherine Rose, the council's principal policy development officer, said this week the authority was "confident" it would still meet its affordable housing target of 1,500 new homes by 2027.
