April 11 2024

A housebuilder is to deliver 28 affordable homes in Dunbar as part of its Halhill development after agreeing on terms with East Lothian Council.

Taylor Wimpey will build the cottage flats, terraced and semi-detached properties at Belhaven Way, a wider development of 197 houses and 48 flats masterplanned by EMA.

Councillor Andy Forrest of East Lothian Council said: “Given the extreme pressures on the social housing sector in East Lothian, it is great news that these new homes will be available for social rent next year via East Lothian Council.

"We have always enjoyed a very positive relationship with Taylor Wimpey and the quality and energy efficiency of the homes is appreciated by tenants.”

Construction work is expected to begin in August for completion by summer 2025. 

10 Comments

#1 Posted by Annie Malone on 11 Apr 2024 at 17:34 PM

Another example of cookie cutter, characterless boxes. Grim

#2 Posted by Islands of sanity on 11 Apr 2024 at 19:45 PM

Exposes the gulf between the hype of Placemaking and the reality of the outputs of the major house builders.

#3 Posted by David on 12 Apr 2024 at 12:47 PM

depressingly orthogonal. How would you be able to find your house when they all look exactly the same?

#4 Posted by Bemused_Citizen on 12 Apr 2024 at 15:46 PM

@ #3 - Houses looking the same isn't the problem, otherwise a vast swathe of people living in cities all around the world would also be struggling to find their homes every single day. The problem is, as comment #2 points out, the lack of any sense of place/character/interest/opportunity.

This is, at the end of the day, a capitalist development embeded in the ideals of modernism. In other words, pure mince.

#5 Posted by Waken up on 13 Apr 2024 at 13:15 PM

High time this council woke up.people need to
eat. Need Doctors and Dentists. Kids need education.
People need hospitals. How is the infrastructure meant to cope.

#6 Posted by Roddy_ on 15 Apr 2024 at 01:17 AM

Proof positive that NPF4 means abolutely nothing. And that the planning system is there to avoid the worst excesses of the volume builders, rather than promote the creation of beautiful places. This is bad, but by no means the worst. How utterly depressing.

#7 Posted by Annie Malone on 15 Apr 2024 at 10:09 AM

I suspect this development was likely approved before the implementation of NPF4, hence the low amount of affordable housing etc. From my experience, many in the planning sector are of the opinion that something has to be so bad before it merits a redesign or refusal; the lowest common denominator wins which I found depressing. NPF4 does seek to address this and to increase affordable housing but we are now experiencing less application from major housebuilders. Why? They can no longer attain profit margins of 15-20% when they now have to provide something of quality and character, not to mention the increased affordable element.

#8 Posted by Philip on 15 Apr 2024 at 20:12 PM

East Lothian Council are excelling in dross development just now- 1990’s style out of town shopping centres (Haddington), countryside MaccyD’s (by Longniddry) and acres and acres of characterless housing drivel. The character of the county is perceptibly deteriorating.

#9 Posted by TheFakeArchitect on 18 Apr 2024 at 12:12 PM

@ #8 yet they continually rebuff anything of interest that they can tediously link to housing in the countryside. Unless you're a large scale developer of course, then its do as you please.

#10 Posted by Lovely on 18 Apr 2024 at 13:04 PM

NPF4 is just a sledge hammer to smash small walnuts to smithereens while letting some real behemoths through with a free pass rather than encourage small scale local development. More favouring of the bigger uglier corporate guys just when we least need it. Big green fields somehow okay for development, small or tiny inner city brown field sites dragged over hot coals ad infinitum until stifled to death....

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