The 813-studio scheme for Exeter's old Heavitree Road police station still has no issued permission. Its affordable studios fell from 83 to 61 in June.

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.

Updated 17 September 2026. We checked the register again on 17 September. Nothing has moved. It still reads Pending Decision, eight days before the agreed expiry date of 25 September that the council and the applicant set for deciding the application.

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:

Affordable co-living studios at Heavitree Road, by position
PositionAffordable studiosShare of co-living
Approved in December 20258320%
Council officers' calculation, June 202660, plus £10,179.8614.5%
Applicant's calculation, June 2026399.34%

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)

Heavitree Road police station: still waiting Application 25/0676/FUL, 399 student and 414 co-living studios 20 Feb 2023 Earlier, larger scheme refused by the committee 30 May 2025 Current application registered 8 Dec 2025 Approved 8 to 2, with 83 affordable studios Subject to a legal agreement within six months 1 Jun 2026 Approved again, unanimously, with 61 Vacant Building Credit applied; deadline extended 16 Sep 2026 Register still says Pending Decision 25 Sep 2026 Agreed expiry date shown on the register 1 Dec 2026 Legal agreement deadline, unless extended in writing Sources: Exeter City Council planning register and Planning Committee papers. Graphic by The Exeter Times

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)

Who owns the land

The applicant does not own the whole site on its own. The application form uses Certificate B. That is the certificate a developer signs when it is not the sole owner of the land and has had to give notice to the others.

The form records notice served on 28 February 2025 on two other owners. Their names are blanked out on the published copy. Their addresses are not:

That matches what is on the ground. The plot holds the old police station and the old magistrates’ court, and the council’s register still gives the address as Devon And Cornwall Constabulary, Heavitree Road. The form is on the council’s own document list for the application.

The applicant is a small company. The Companies House record for NCO (Seven) Limited, company number 14671630, shows:

  • incorporated on 17 February 2023, registered office at Club Chambers, Museum Street, York
  • registered business activity of management consultancy, not construction
  • one person with significant control, Nixos (Exeter) Limited, at the same York address, with between 25% and 50% of the shares and voting rights
  • no charges registered, so no mortgage or other security against the company
  • accounts filed as dormant to February 2024 and February 2025, then micro-entity accounts for the year to 28 February 2026, filed on 22 July 2026

A single company set up for a single site is normal in development. It does mean the public record for the applicant says nothing about how a scheme of this size would be paid for.

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.
  • If you want to know who is behind it, the applicant is a York-registered company, and the record shows two other owners were served notice in February 2025, at the Ministry of Justice and at police headquarters in Exeter.
  • Planning decisions across the city are tracked on our Exeter planning news page.

Sources