Heavitree Road Police Site: Affordable Homes Cut to 61

The plan to replace Exeter’s old police station and magistrates’ court on Heavitree Road with 813 student and co-living studios still has no planning permission. Exeter City Council’s planning register listed the application as Pending Decision when we checked it on 16 September 2026.

That is nine months after the council’s Planning Committee voted to approve it. In the meantime the scheme went back to the committee, and the number of affordable studios it must provide was cut from 83 to 61.

What the committee approved, twice

The application, 25/0676/FUL, was made by NCO (Seven) Limited. It proposes to demolish the police station, custody cells and court buildings and put up seven blocks of four to six storeys. The scheme includes:

• 399 purpose-built student studios
• 414 co-living studios, small private rooms with shared kitchens and lounges
• a public path through the site linking Newtown and the city centre
• wider pavements on Heavitree Road and Gladstone Road
• a car-free design, with measures in the legal agreement to prevent car ownership and use

The site sits opposite the University of Exeter’s St Luke’s Campus. It has been empty since 2021, according to the minutes of the June meeting.

On 8 December 2025 the Planning Committee voted 8 to 2 to grant permission. The approval depended on a section 106 legal agreement being signed within six months. If it was not, the committee resolved that the application should be refused. Councillors also changed the terms so the public path through the site stays open 24 hours a day, not only in daytime. (Planning Committee minutes, 8 December 2025)

That six months would have run out on 8 June 2026. The agreement was not signed in time, so officers took the application back to committee on 1 June.

Why the affordable studios fell

The December approval was based on 20% of the co-living studios, 83 of them, being let as Affordable Private Rent. The minutes describe it as a rent set 20% below the market rate.

After December, the applicant asked for Vacant Building Credit to be applied. This is a national policy meant to encourage building on brownfield land. It lets a developer offset the floor space of existing empty buildings against the affordable housing it has to provide. The applicant cited “the costs of demolition and construction to the high standard proposed, together with the significant financial contributions and Community Infrastructure Levy charges”, according to the officers’ report.

Officers accepted the credit applied, but disagreed with the applicant about how to calculate it. The June report set out the gap:

Officers also noted that the amount of existing floor space claimed on the site “had increased significantly since the application was first submitted”. That figure feeds directly into how much credit applies.

A few hours before the meeting, the applicant’s agent wrote to officers accepting their figure. The minutes record that the agent still maintained its own approach was valid, but accepted the officers’ method “in the interests of moving the application forward”.

Exeter Civic Society had objected on 28 May. Its point was that the level of affordable housing was too important to leave to officers to settle after the meeting.

The committee agreed. Councillors amended the recommendation to fix the number in the resolution itself: 60 Affordable Private Rent studios plus a payment of £10,179.86, or 61 studios. The amendment and the approval were both carried unanimously. (Planning Committee report, 1 June 2026; minutes of the 1 June meeting)

The new deadline

The June resolution gives the applicant until 1 December 2026 to sign the section 106 agreement. It also lets the Head of City Development extend that date in writing. If the agreement is not completed by then, or by any extended date, the committee resolved that permission should be refused.

The planning register separately shows an agreed expiry date of 25 September 2026. That is a date agreed between the council and the applicant for deciding the application. The register does not say whether it will be extended again.

The section 106 agreement carries more than the affordable studios. It also secures, among other things:

• £244,680.81 towards GP services
• £371,541 towards public open space
• £95,121 towards outdoor leisure facilities
• £115,092 towards playing fields across the city, from the co-living part
• land kept free for a possible future bus lane, and for an electric bike sharing scheme

None of that is payable until the agreement is signed and permission is issued.

A long-running site

This is the second attempt to build student and co-living housing here. The committee refused an earlier scheme on 20 February 2023, and the December 2025 officers’ report records that it was then dismissed on appeal after a public inquiry. The inspector found the harm to the area’s character “would be severe”.

The minutes of December’s meeting say the new design removed more than 140 units and broke the buildings into smaller blocks. Officers accepted that the scheme still means the loss of many trees on the site, including mature ones.

The applicant’s own economic statement, summarised in the December report, estimated 210 construction jobs over a build of about two and a half years. (Planning Committee report, 8 December 2025)

What it means for you

• If you live in Newtown, St Leonards or around Gladstone Road, nothing can start on site until the legal agreement is signed and the decision notice is issued. The register is the place to watch: its status will change from Pending Decision when that happens.
• If you were counting on the affordable studios, the number is now fixed at 61, or 60 plus a payment. They are co-living studios let at a discount to market rent, not family homes.
• If you walk or cycle through the area, the path across the site must be open 24 hours a day under the terms the committee set.
• Planning decisions across the city are tracked on our Exeter planning news page.

Sources

• Planning application 25/0676/FUL, Exeter City Council planning register: status Pending Decision, committee date 1 June 2026 and agreed expiry date 25 September 2026, checked 16 September 2026.
• Planning Committee report, 8 December 2025: the scheme, the 83 affordable studios, the section 106 contributions and the economic statement.
• Planning Committee minutes, 8 December 2025: the 8 to 2 vote, the 24-hour path amendment, the six-month deadline and the February 2023 refusal.
• Planning Committee report, 1 June 2026: Vacant Building Credit, the applicant’s 39 and officers’ 60, and the 8 June lapse date.
• Planning Committee minutes, 1 June 2026 (published with the 6 July 2026 agenda): the agent’s letter, the Civic Society objection, the unanimous votes and the 1 December 2026 deadline.