Hopes modular homes would be built to help the Isle of Wight’s housing crisis have fallen by the wayside without a single one delivered.
The Isle of Wight Council approved a project to build 20 two-bed, relocatable modular homes in January 2022 following months of discussion.
However, it has now announced it could not take the project further as costs spiralled and legislation changed which made the scheme more ‘complicated’.
It was hoped the modular homes could provide a temporary solution for Island families at risk of homelessness, with cabinet member for housing, Cllr Ian Stephens saying last year the authority “had to deliver” the homes as problems with the Island’s housing and rental market were not diminishing.
The number of Island families in temporary accommodation on the Island has remained high since the project was approved and latest figures show 227 families in need, in June.
The project has now been taken out of the council’s housing strategy action plan, without providing the ‘quick fix’ the authority had hoped for.
Speaking at a regeneration and neighbourhoods scrutiny committee last week, Cllr Julie Jones-Evans said it was ‘beyond frustrating’ the project could not continue.
She said planning guidance had changed since the project started which meant it was not as easy to place the modular homes anywhere, and the site chosen, by Newport Harbour, had some issues when the council started exploring the land.
Cllr Jones-Evans, the cabinet member for regeneration, said:
“It was a valuable project but it was just the wrong time, perhaps the wrong site, and would have just cost too much as the costs kept going up and up as time went on.
“It is not housing at any cost, it is housing at the right cost for the value for money limitations and this was deemed not good value for money, so it was stopped.”
Cllr Jones-Evans said she was upset about the decision as they had put so much work and effort into it but they have learnt a lot about modular housing and it was something the council was still looking at, but not in a relocatable way.
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