Group hopes to build affordable homes at Watchet’s old paper mill

A community housing company is hoping to transform the site of a former paper mill into affordable rental homes.

Base for Life wants to build community-owned properties at Wansborough paper mill in Watchet, Somerset, which was in operation from 1652 to 2015.

Previous plans from developers did not come to fruition but Base for Life is hoping to break the deadlock and ease the town’s housing crisis.

Chairwoman Liz McGrath said: “Where there’s a specific need or problem, local people are better able to find a solution than central government or private capital interests.”

The mill, believed to be the largest brownfield site in west Somerset, was bought by London-based developer Tameer Homes for £4m in December 2018, according to Land Registry documents.

Tameer initially planned to build 350 homes on the site, as well as a hotel, leisure facilities, business units and a public car park.

But these proposals were abandoned during the pandemic, and subsequent plans from other companies considering buying the site from Tameer also came to nothing, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Somerset Council confirmed in a statement just before Christmas that there has been no activity in relation to planning applications for the site “for many, many months”.

Now Base for Life says it has “made connections” with Tameer about its plan for rental properties.

The not-for-profit organisation works to secure funding from a range of regional and national bodies to finance its projects.

Chairwoman Ms McGrath told group’s annual general meeting in late November: “The income gap between the rich and the poor has grown massively – house prices and rents have hugely increased in relation to local wages.

“Many families are currently destined to live in high-price, low-security, variable quality and expensive rental properties.

“Leaving the housing crisis to private investment isn’t working.”