Flats built without permission now occupied

A new block of flats built without planning permission is now occupied, a developer has said.

Redsky Homes built the 51 homes on the site of the former Willow Tree pub in Langley, Slough, despite getting permission after an appeal for 41 in 2021.

It has asked Slough Borough Council to approve the current five-storey building after families moved in.

Plans show the building is the same height as planned, but its lower storeys are wider and closer to neighbouring homes.

A spokesperson for Redsky did not say why the developer did not apply for planning permission before completing construction on the building.

But they insisted the plan had "no material impact on neighbouring properties".

They said: "During construction it became clear that there was an opportunity to provide additional much-needed new homes.

"As set out in the application, the development is appropriate in the local context."

They told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that "all the homes are occupied with families proud to call Slough their home".

The Planning Inspectorate allowed the development in 2021 after Slough Borough Council turned it down.

The authority's planning committee said it would have had a "very strongly urbanising effect" on the area and rejected the plan, originally tabled by previous developers SN Developments, in August 2020.

It said the scale of the building – five storeys at its tallest point – would have a "severely detrimental impact on the privacy and amenities" of neighbours.

SN Developments appears to have sold the land in June 2023.

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