Plans for huge 600-home development at former Reading Royal Mail depot don’t include affordable housing

Plans for a huge new development in Reading now contain no affordable housing after the developer submitted an amended plan.

Hermes Property Unit Trust had submitted plans for more than 600 homes on the site of the empty former Royal Mail depot in Caversham Road.

Initially, it was proposed the development would contain 658 homes – a mix of studio, one bedroom, two bedroom and three bedroom homes.

However, the new plans have reduced that, proposing 620 homes.

Find out how you can get the latest news from BerkshireLive delivered straight to your inbox

The first proposal for the development, called Reading Metropolitan, suggest 97 of the homes would be affordable. However, that has now been pulled and the developer is now proposing not having affordable homes on the site.

Another change is a reduction in size of the tallest building on the site. Hermes proposes this building, which was originally 25 storeys, now be reduced by nine metres to 24 storeys.

The developer also proposes an increase in office space on the land, from 16,674 square metres to 19,370 square metres.

Letters have been sent by Reading Borough Council to people living nearby explaining the proposals.

However, the Bell Tower Community Association has not been persuaded by the changes, and has confirmed it will fight the plans.

A statement on the group’s Facebook Page said: “Hermes, the company that owns the former post office site in Caversham Road next to the railway, has put in amended proposals for its outline planning application for redevelopment of the site.

“The tallest tower would be reduced by 9 metres and one storey, and there would be less residential accommodation and more office space.

“The Bell Tower Community Association has always had serious concerns about the proposals for this site, and while a small decrease in height of the tallest tower is welcome (although we believe it is still too tall), in our view most of the updated proposals do not represent an improvement.

“In particular we believe that the increase in office space will be unnecessary given the current trend of increased remote working, and the complete loss of social housing is to be deplored.

“It should be borne in mind that planning permission is currently not needed to convert office space into residential units – so we can foresee conversion to low-quality accommodation with no contribution to local infrastructure when it is found that the office space is undesirable.

“There will be a small increase in the number of 3-bedroom units, but one of the blocks will also lose communal outside space.”

Public comments can be made on the plans until Thursday, July 30.

Full details of the proposed development can be found here.