Wokingham council weighs turning £800,000-a-year business park into 100-plus homes

Wokingham Borough Council’s plan to convert Mulberry Business Park into more than 100 affordable and specialist homes was due before its scrutiny committee on Wednesday 4 November, with the Executive to decide on 26 November.

The council bought the business park as an investment in 2018, and it now costs the council more than £800,000 a year.

The council said the homes in Wokingham town would be for people on the housing waiting list, but only if the plan is approved and planning permission is gained.

It said a wide range of options for the site had been assessed, and the recommendation is that it be turned into social housing.

Council leader Stephen Conway said the plan would help the council meet need and cut reliance on “costly out‑of‑borough placements”.

The homes could include accessible and adaptable properties, care-leaver accommodation, specialist adult social care housing and general needs homes, the council said.

The council said demand for and the value of office space fell after the coronavirus pandemic, so the park now costs it money and a sale would not recoup its investment.

The park currently has one commercial tenant and one other voluntary sector tenant, the council said, with the running cost put at more than £800,000 a year.

Part of the building has also been used rent-free for the past three years by The Cowshed charity, under a short-term agreement.

That arrangement was made when the charity was forced out of its previous private rental home in Reading, and Conway described it as a “temporary lifeline”.

He said much of the building could not be let commercially, and that the council had tried to make the investment work but the financial climate did not allow it.

Offices can also be turned into homes under permitted development rights, which the House of Commons Library describes as a separate route from a planning application.

The government first allowed office-to-home conversions that way in 2013, initially for three years, and made the right permanent in 2015.

The Commons Library said 102,830 new homes were delivered through change-of-use permitted development rights between 2015/16 and 2022/23.

Of those, 89% came from converting offices and other commercial, business and retail units.

Such homes made up around 6% of net additional homes delivered over the same period, according to the library.

The Wokingham scheme is not being pursued on that basis: the council has said it depends on planning permission being gained as well as approval of the proposal itself.

Conway said the council has a duty to find the best use for its buildings, and that one of the borough’s greatest needs is social housing.

He listed those who could benefit as people at risk of homelessness, care leavers, people with physical disabilities and local families struggling to afford private accommodation.

The Executive’s decision on 26 November will take into account comments from the overview and scrutiny process.