Developers who agree to make a fifth of their homes available for affordable rent or sale will have their planning applications fast-tracked.
The pilot scheme has been launched by Bristol City Council in a bid to increase the number of affordable homes in the city centre.
The authority has a target of between 20 and 40 per cent affordable provision on all new developments. However viability studies – which work out how many homes a developer needs to sell at market value to make a minimum 20 per cent profit – often reduce this number.
Affordable housing is defined as homes which are either available for rent at below market rates or to buy with mortgage payments which are below market rates.
Developments on the outskirts of Bristol are increasingly reaching the 20 per cent target. But city centre projects have a paltry average of just 6 per cent affordable provision.
To combat this, council cabinet lead for housing Paul Smith has created a scheme whereby developers don’t have to carry out the costly viability studies as long as they commit to making a minimum of 20 per cent of their building schemes affordable housing.
Alongside saving money on the assessment, the development will be fast-tracked through the planning system, on the understanding that works will start within 18 months of permission being granted.
The pilot, which was approved at cabinet on Tuesday, March 6, will run for 18 months, with a review due to take place after the first year. It will cover all new developments in the centre of the city, including the Lawrence Hill, Cabot, Ashley and Cotham wards.
“To be honest, we don’t know how well it will work, as it is a pilot,” Mr Smith said.
"It is something we are trying - we have no idea whether it will produce anything at all - but we have to try things and we are trying lots of different things in terms of housing. Not all of them will succeed but I would rather try something and it fails than not try anything at all.”
Mr Smith claims there are a number of reasons why it is difficult to get affordable homes in Bristol built, including high land prices pushing down viability assessment numbers.
“In the centre of Bristol there is archaeology which needs to be done, there is likely to be contamination in the land, there are other buildings around, which developers have to take consideration of, and there is often issues with access - so there are a whole load of issues which make it more expensive to build in the centre of a city compared to the outskirts,” he said.
“That is why we are concentrating this policy on the central area, where there is a problem, rather than applying it to the whole city. It also allows us to see if it makes a differential difference in the centre to elsewhere at the end of the trial period.”
In addition to the 20 per cent affordable pledge, Mr Smith hopes developers will work with the council to access funding from the authority and the government agency Home England, to build shared ownership and housing association properties for rent.
The Labour councillor claims this will act as a “carrot” rather than a "stick" for developers and show them Bristol is not a “soft touch” when it comes to affordability.
“A lot of what we have been doing with developers is 'sticks' up to now, but it seems to me that as we change our approach developers have started costing in our policies,” Mr Smith said.
“What happened before is developers thought we were a soft touch and thought they could get away with no affordable housing.
“But because they now know they are going to get a hard time from me, a hard time from the planning committee, they are seeing Bristol is getting serious about it.
“It is about a change in culture and an understanding when Bristol says it wants affordable housing, it actually means it. It is about political will.”