Today Weston Homes, the developers for the planned Anglia Square redevelopment, have announced they have been forced to pull out of the proposed scheme due to a “multitude of issues” which meant it was no longer financially viable.

My statement on this news can be read below.

The clear will of the majority of my constituents was to get Anglia Square ‘done’ this time. I know our Labour-run council did as much as it could to get the best, feasible outcome.

We desperately need the 300 extra social homes the scheme could eventually have brought into being and the rejuvenation of a part of our city adjacent to some of the country’s most disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

This version of Anglia Square wasn’t perfect, but the city wanted and needed it. And we could have got it – and something better – if local authorities had the means and powers to take the lead instead of having to rely on ‘the market’.

When Labour in Norwich is able to fully take the reigns, it creates award-winning gold-standard energy-saving social housing like Goldsmith Street and the country’s second largest development of Passivhaus-standard houses at the council’s Bowthorpe project.

Read the Norwich Evening News’ article on the story here.