The Bath Echo is reporting that a budget of £10.122m is set to be approved by BATHNES Cabinet for the Supported Housing scheme on the Tufa Field.

This is reported as a council forward plan issue here.

In addition to the almost £2m already spent, this brings the total to £12m! Given  the Council’s notoriously poor expenditure management and the difficult construction conditions expected to be encountered, this figure is very likely to be considerably exceeded.

As for timescales, when the original business case was approved in September 2022, delivery was promised for January 2025. It now seems likely that no occupation can take place at least until 2027, and with the Council’s notorious record for vastly over-promising and under-delivering on capital projects, even this should be regarded as optimistic.

Meanwhile, some of our most vulnerable people are being denied help they could have had 5 years ago if the money had been spent on revising or converting existing accommodation within the City.

The original business case for this development was approved at £6.14m, so the effective doubling of costs must call into question the business case, which together with the extended timescales means that vulnerable people will not benefit from this scheme for at least another 3 years, and council taxpayers will not see any benefit for at least 20 years.

Together with the setup costs that are not included in the purely build costs above, our reporting of a £20m cost, as proposed in the BANES budget allocation seems accurate!

The scheme is dependant on some funding from Homes England, yet to be declared, with that body under intense pressure to examine value for money from its applicants  for support.

The Cabinet meets on the 11th September 2025 to rubber-stamp the expenditure.