Councillors removed the 25% affordable homes duty from the Stoke Road scheme on 21 October. Moat Homes plans to deliver them with grant funding instead.

The legal requirement for a quarter of the 134 homes planned off Stoke Road in Hoo St Werburgh to be affordable has been removed.

Medway Council’s Planning Committee agreed the change on 21 October. Its record of the meeting says all reference to the 25% requirement will be taken out of the site’s Section 106 agreement.

The developer and a housing association both say the affordable homes will still be built. But the council’s own paper is plain about what changes. The Chief Planning Officer’s report says a Section 106 or planning conditions are “the only way” for the council to guarantee them.

Why councillors agreed

The report says the developer, Esquire, approached every housing association operating in Medway and received no offers for the homes under the existing agreement.

One housing association has offered to take them if it wins a government grant. That is the catch: Homes England does not fund affordable homes secured through a Section 106. So the requirement has to go before the grant can be sought.

The report set out what officers feared if councillors said no:

  • the permission could not be built without breaching the agreement, so there would be no affordable homes at all
  • Medway would find it harder to meet the government’s housing delivery test
  • developers could win more schemes on appeal elsewhere, including on the Hoo Peninsula
  • local construction work linked to the site would be lost

A fallback known as a cascade was also rejected. Officers said its usual steps, such as a different tenure mix, off-site homes or a cash payment, would not deliver the homes on this site as policy requires.

No public consultation was required, the report says.

Who has promised what

Esquire’s letter, dated 19 August, names the housing association as Moat. It says the rented homes would improve from Affordable Rent to Social Rent, which Moat says has materially lower rents. It also says the same arrangement is already being used on three of its Medway sites: Rainham, Cliffe Woods and Fenn Bell.

Moat’s letter says the government’s new grant programme is focused on Social Rent, and that it has delivered homes this way in Medway and Swale. It does not name a number of homes or a date.

The papers give slightly different accounts of what happens if the deal falls through:

Source What it says would happen
Committee record The homes “would not be developed for private sale”. The applicant would come back to the council, with referral to the Planning Committee
Esquire’s letter It would work with the council on another housing association, the council’s own housing routes, discount market sale or, “as a failsafe”, an off-site contribution
Officers’ report Lists private sale of the homes as a risk, rated unlikely with a moderate impact

That risk entry refers to “68 dwellings for private sale”. A quarter of 134 is about 34 homes, by our arithmetic, and none of the papers gives a count of the affordable homes. The report does not explain the 68.

What was approved in 2025

Councillors approved the scheme on 12 March 2025. It covers the former Sturdee Club and land at Stoke Road. As well as the homes, it includes over-55s housing, a children’s nursery, a cafe or community hub, shops or offices, and play areas.

That meeting’s record says members “were pleased to see 25% of affordable housing”. It notes there were then more than 900 Medway children living in temporary accommodation.

The agreement was signed on 18 August 2025. It also carries about £2.36 million of payments, by our addition of the sums in the report. The largest are:

  • £550,000 for off-site highway improvements
  • £489,169 for primary or special needs school places
  • £400,000 for public transport
  • £387,585 for secondary or special needs school places
  • £150,000 for open space and outdoor sport in the Hoo area

The decision recorded on 21 October covers only the affordable housing obligations.

What it means for you

If you are on the housing register, Social Rent homes at Hoo would be good news, but they now depend on Moat’s grant bid. No paper gives a date for that bid or a decision on it.

If you live in Hoo, the report says the developer has been clearing conditions ready to start on site. A small amendment application, MC/26/2100, was validated this week to change one plot from two bedrooms to three.

You can follow any scheme on our Medway planning applications guide.