By John Baron
Early plans for affordable housing at a former industrial site on Kirkstall Road will receive initial feedback from councillors next week.
Applicant Your Housing Group (YHG) is one of the largest providers of affordable housing in the UK, managing over 27,000 homes across the North-West, Yorkshire and the Midlands.
YHG is hoping to build 43 houses and 87 apartments with associated public greenspace, car parking and landscaping on the former Thyssen Krupp site.
The organisation will next Thursday present the details of the proposed development to allow councillors on the city plans panel to comment and shape the proposals ahead of a formal planning application being submitted to the council.
The proposed houses will include: 24 three-bedroom townhouses, 6 three-bedroom mews houses and 13 three-bedroom terraced townhouses (House Type 3 – the southern terrace).
Proposed apartments will include 35 one-bedroom apartments, 47 two-bedroom apartments; and 5 three-bedroom apartments. They would sit across two separate blocks, both of which front Kirkstall Road, with the smaller block located on the north west corner of the site.
Access would be from Viaduct Road.
Councillors will debate flood risk, housing mix, the proposed scale and form of development, carp parking and landscaping while the proposals are at pre-application stage.
A council planning officer’s report concludes: “The emerging proposals offer a significant potential to regenerate a prominently located brownfield site which has been vacant and underutilised for a number of years.
“Subject to passing a flood risk sequential test and exception test the development would deliver a significant number of affordable new homes in a high quality, well designed and mid-density development. The development also offers the opportunity to provide new public realm and greenspace and facilitates pedestrian routes and future access through the site.”
The council documents can be read in full here. The city plans panel will meet at Leeds Civic Hall on Thursday, 8 September 2022 at 1.30pm.
About the applicant
Your Housing Group operates under a not-for-profit umbrella, with surpluses reinvested into the provision of affordable housing, the maintenance of existing properties, and the development of new services for customers.
YHG is a registered affordable housing provider regulated by Homes England. The group manages general rented, sheltered, and shared ownership accommodation with local operations based in the communities in which they operate. It prides itself on providing homes which enable people to get on and off the property ladder at different stages of their lives.
Site history
Plans for up to 272 flats were approved at city plans panel in 2019 but the application collapsed in September 2020 due to lack of progress with the developer’s financial contributions.
Thyssen Krupp left the site following the December 2015 floods, which saw the River Aire break its banks along the Kirksrtall corridor and in parts of the city centre. Flood defences have now been constructed to help protect the site but some of the properties on the site will be raised by 1,000mm to help protect against flood risk.
The former Thyssen Krupp offices at the side of the site have been successfully converted into apartments.
More on the site’s rich industrial history can be read here.
