COUNCILLORS agreed to alter conditions placed upon a developer to provide social housing. The property company, headed by businessman Trevor Skoulding, fought off fierce competition to be granted permission for a housing estate at The Chase, Leverington i

COUNCILLORS agreed to alter conditions placed upon a developer to provide social housing.

The property company, headed by businessman Trevor Skoulding, fought off fierce competition to be granted permission for a housing estate at The Chase, Leverington in August last year.

Under a Section 106 agreement the applicant was obliged to include a provision of 35 per cent of affordable housing plus contributions for education and public open space.

A report prepared for councillors by the council's development services manager Nigel Brown said: "It was found that with the onerous Section 106 requirements the site was not viable to build without the applicant suffering a major financial loss due to the current economic climate."

The report also stated: "This is a unique situation. Several options have been explored given the application site's unique constraints, especially the high tree coverage on the site, has resulted in it being difficult to achieve higher density of housing to overcome the viability issues."

Originally the developer had requested for all Section 106 agreements to be removed.

But a principal agreement was made at Wednesday's meeting of Fenland District Council's Planning Committee that the developer would enter into a Deed of Variation with the council to replace the existing conditions with a contribution of �10,000 per dwelling to be divided between housing, education and public space.

This matter will now need to be agreed by Cabinet and referred back to the Planning Committee for approval.