Plans for nearly 30 sheltered apartments in Hayes are set to be thrown out because the developer refuses to include affordable housing.

Renaissance Retirement wants to bulldoze buildings in West Common Road for 28 sheltered apartments for the elderly.

The scheme has already been pushed back once by Bromley councillors, who wanted further investigation into how much affordable housing can be delivered.

The developer says its scheme can’t afford affordable housing – instead offering £700k to the council for health infrastructure, carbon offsetting and housing elsewhere.

Neighbours have already taken issue with the plans, which they say are over-development, out of character and could lower the value of their properties.

In their report, which is set to be debated at a meeting next week, planners at the council says the scheme should be rejected.

The report explains: “The proposal would result in the loss of the existing commercial site and redevelopment of the site for retirement living.

“It is considered that the proposal would result in a cramped over-development of the site, which would fail to respect of complement the established character of the locality, resulting in harm to the visual amenities of the street scene.”

Officers have disagreed with the developer’s claim that the scheme could not make a profit if it included affordable housing, and have listed that as one major reason for refusal.

“The council is of the opinion that the development can viably make a contribution towards affordable housing. However at the time of writing, agreement has not been reached with the applicant as to the contribution,” the report said.

The developer says the new apartments would deliver much-needed accommodation for the elderly population.

Bromley, the biggest borough in London, does have one of the largest elderly communities in the capital.

Councillors will have their say on the proposals at a planning meeting next Thursday, February 14.

Officers said: “The proposed development would result in an additional 28 residential units within a sustainable location, which would boost the supply of housing within the borough.

“However in this case it is not considered that this  contribution would outweigh the other policy objections with particular regard to affordable housing and the harmful impact on the character of the area.”

Simon McFarlane, head of planning at Renaissance Retirement said that the scheme did have backing from ward councillors.

Mr Mcfarlane added: "We were pleased that the committee acknowledged the design of the scheme. councillors then chose to defer a decision on the scheme solely on the matter of supporting development contributions that would go towards funding local affordable housing.

"Since December's committee, we have been looking to reach agreement with officers on the level of this financial contribution and we hope to achieve this by next week's meeting.

"Of late, there has been a very limited provision of specialist older people's housing locally so there's a real need across the borough - if approved, our plans would help contribute to improving the amount of this type of housing locally. "