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Trump Organization faces £5m affordable housing bill for Scottish development
The Trump Organization could face a £5m bill in place of a commitment to build affordable housing in Scotland.
In its response to Trump’s planning application to build housing near the company’s golf course in Aberdeenshire, the council’s housing service said it is looking for a £5m payment.
Originally the company, founded by US president Donald Trump, said it planned to make 25% of the 500 planned homes “affordable key worker apartments”, in line with Aberdeenshire Council’s policy that new developments should include 25% affordable housing.
Martin Ford, an Aberdeenshire councillor for the Green Party, told Inside Housing that this meant the homes would be for estate staff, not any of the 6,000 people on Aberdeenshire’s housing waiting lists.
The proposals have not yet received planning permission and the council has received almost 3,000 letters of complaint from residents.
This week, the council’s housing service wrote in its response to the application: “In accordance with the affordable housing policy, the housing service is seeking to secure a 25% affordable housing contribution in the form of a commuted payment.”
It is rare, according to Aberdeenshire’s affordable housing strategy, for the council to allow a cash payment rather than forcing the developer to build affordable housing onsite.
Councillors have yet to accept the proposal and could still enforce the building of affordable housing on the Menie Estate site.
Originally, Trump had planned to build 850 homes by the golf course it has already built on the site, but has since reduced the number.
The building of homes in the area is included in the area’s local development plan, although the homes were included alongside Trump’s plan to build a golf resort for the course, which the company has not built.
Mr Ford said: “Clearly a new settlement made up of expensive, luxury housing, with no affordable housing, is not in any sense a sustainable mixed community so would represent a breach of an important strategic policy approach.
“I can’t see why Aberdeenshire Council would want to agree to that. Generally, the council seeks 25% affordable housing on site as part of the development. There seems no good reason for the Council to – once again – make an exception to suit the Trump Organization.”
A spokesperson for Trump International Golf Links – Scotland, said: “Aberdeenshire Council has requested a financial contribution towards the provision of affordable housing offsite, in line with the outline planning permission granted in 2008.
“This is not new and does not mean there is a refusal on our part to include affordable housing. Quite the contrary. The application before the council is only seeking approval for the detail of the first chapter of housing.
“Further detailed applications will follow in due course for the remaining chapters of development. Trump International has raised the prospect of providing onsite affordable housing as part of future chapters and the council has said they would be open to considering such proposals when further applications come forward in due course.”
No party has overall control of Aberdeenshire Council, but the Conservatives hold the most seats at 23.
Update: at 17.09 at 23.01.19 This story was updated to include a comment from Trump International Golf Links – Scotland.
