The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
A bid to buy three homes to house nine currently homeless people in Spalding has been thrown into doubt after councillors voted one as unsuitable amid concerns it’s being rushed through.
South Holland District Council currently has until March 31 to purchase the nine units or it could miss out on £400,000 of government funding.
The purchase of two properties, which would each house three people, has been agreed.
But the decision to purchase a third property was called in by Coun Angela Newton who was concerned that the home didn’t meet the criteria the council itself set.
The council says it’s working with the government to try and secure an extension to the deadline.
The two properties in the process of being purchased are in the Wygate and St Mary’s wards of Spalding with the third in Monkshouse ward.
The exact locations of the homes are not being revealed as the council claims it could lead to the sellers of the homes being identified.
An urgent meeting of the council’s Performance Monitoring Panel voted that the council should not purchase the property following the call in.
It heard that after the purchase of the two properties, the criteria of houses the council set it itself that should be met to justify a purchase was widened in January after no suitable properties were found.
However Coun Newton argued the Monkshouse property did not meet the criteria highlighting that there was only parking for one of the three tenants.
Coun Newton told the meeting she’d suggested other properties: “Why the rush to buy a property I feel is not right and is not giving us good value for money?
“This property chosen or identified secretly to us doesn’t meet that requirement, it doesn’t have enough parking for residents, less than sufficient for three vehicles
“The costs you’ve identified are nearly half as much again as the cost of the property and I just find, say you bought a car that was £10,000 and have to spend nearly £5,000 on it, wouldn’t you look for something you can use straight away?
“There was talk the ward members have been consulted but I don’t really think we were consulted.”
The council’s strategic housing manager Caroline Hannon told the meeting an initial plan was to provide all nine units in one plot, but that was changed after conversations with Homes England.
She said: “The reason for the urgency was to try and keep the grant funding in the district and it was felt that we would be in a stronger position to renegotiate the terms if we had three properties identified and going through the process.”
The £399,265 funding was granted by Homes England on September 28.
It includes £289,190 of capital funding, which is to be matched by SHDC, and £110,075 for ongoing management and support for the tenancies.
Portfolio holder for assets and planning Coun Rodney Grocock will make the final decision on whether to approve the Monkshouse home purchase.
The idea behind the homes is to cut the increasing cost to the council on housing the homeless.
The authority says it currently has 39 households in interim accommodation which is estimated to cost it £525,000 in this current financial year. It’s budgeted to cost it £350,000 in 2021/22.
A South Holland District Council spokesman said: “Since the council received the news of the opportunity to bring funding into the district to support some of our most vulnerable residents in urgent need of accommodation, the team has been working hard through a difficult, pandemic-affected housing market to find the most suitable possible properties in the district.
“A total of 29 properties have been viewed as part of this process, with the first two purchases agreed in December last year.
“This third property was identified in January, since when a financial evaluation and a business case have been prepared to allow councillors to make the most informed decision possible.
“As part of the search a list of desired property criteria was created, to quickly allow staff to assess a potential house and prioritise viewings based on how many of these areas were fulfilled.
“These are designed to serve as a guide to help the search to be as efficient as possible, and are not a concrete list that every property is expected to achieve in full. High levels of car ownership are unlikely for the residents of the property, but an off-road parking space is available if required.”
