A PLANNED housing development near Somerset’s new £4bn ‘gigafactory’ has been scrapped after the developer ran out of time to begin construction.

Wain Homes Severn Valley secured planning permission from Sedgemoor District Council in September 2020 to build 175 new homes on the B3141 Woolavington Hill, at the southern edge of Woolavington.

The legal agreements concerning the plans – which includes the delivery of a new roundabout on the A39 Bath Road, replacing the existing T-junction – were not formally signed off by planning officers until March 2022.

The Bristol-based developer managed to persuade Somerset Council in December 2024 to slash the amount of affordable homes that would be provided within the site, claiming the initial numbers agreed had made the site “undeliverable”.

But now the developer has been sent back to the drawing board after its original planning permission for the site lapsed – meaning a fresh application must be submitted and approved before any homes can be built there.

The site lies on the western side of Woolavington Hill, bordered by two public rights of way and the allotments located off Sedgemoor Way.

Wain Homes’ plans were divided into parts – full planning permission for the first 100 homes (including the new access road onto Woolavington Hill) and outline planning permission for the remaining 75 properties.

Following the December decision by the council’s planning committee north, only 30 affordable homes would have been provided throughout the entire site, with the developer blaming “a significant cooling of the housing market in light of high inflation & the resulting high interest rates”.

One of the conditions of the original planning permission for the site was that construction work had to begin within three years of the decision notice being issued – in other words, by the end of March 2025.

While the site has been fenced off from the public for some time, no construction work has taken place therein – meaning that this planning permission has now lapsed.

As such, the planned changes to the affordable housing within the development have also been rendered null and void.

A council spokesman said: “We can confirm that because the time limit for starting the original planning permission lapsed on March 16, 2025 without the development starting on site and relevant conditions being satisfied, the amendment application [to change the quantity of affordable housing] has been withdrawn by the applicant.

“This does not mean that the developer has u-turned on the changes to the Section 106 agreement – just that the opportunity to proceed on the basis recently agreed by the planning committee north has been lost.

“This means that there is now no planning permission covering the site at Woolavington Hill, and a new planning application will be required to be submitted to the council for consideration before any development can take place on the site.”

Woolavington is expected to expand greatly in the coming years as the new £4bn gigafactory is constructed by Agratas, with the first phase expected to be operational by 2027.

Persimmon Homes Severn Valley is expected to launch a new public consultation in the near-future on its planned ‘West Woolavington’ neighbourhood, which will deliver a further 1,400 homes at the western edge of the village.

Construction is currently under way on 14 low-cost homes on Lavers Close, being delivered by Bridgwater-based housing association SHAL Housing Ltd.

Alan Sharp, chairman of Woolavington Parish Council, stated in December 2024 that a “joined-up” approach was needed to ensuring that Woolavington could secure enough much-needed low-cost housing for local people.

He said: “There is a substantial local housing need. We have pro-actively tried to get a joined up review of development in the village started, but have met with little success.

“We understand and accept that the outcome of this review may give the same result, but at least we would have had full involvement.”