Sefton Council plans to buy dozens of homes from its own housing company in order to own the first local authority-built homes in the borough for decades.
Sandway Homes, wholly owned by Sefton Council, is currently in the process of building new homes at a site on Buckley Hill Lane in Netherton, where 63 units are expected to be built.
The scheme for the site had been subject to delays that put back the completion date by a year, according to an update provided to Sefton Council in December.
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The delays had been put down to an “exceptionally long lead in” for services to be moved – as well as changes in combined authority funding requirements, tweaks to the design and problems with contractor costs with the site now expected to be completed by April 2024.
Initial plans approved by Sefton’s cabinet in May last year involved the council buying 12 of the units, nine for social rented housing with a further four earmarked for shared ownership.
According to an update provided to Sefton Council’s cabinet earlier this month, this plan is now being revised to include the purchase of more properties at the site – a situation in part brought about by the removal of an affordable homes requirement in the planning permission last year.
The report said: “In December 2022 planning committee approved the removal of the affordable housing requirement on the site due to viability concerns.
“Grants through Homes England’s Affordable Homes Programme 2021 – 2026 are only available to fund schemes where there is no planning requirement to provide affordable housing and therefore removal of the condition has presented the opportunity for the council to apply for grant funding to help fund the acquisition of properties on the Buckley Hill Lane site.
“Negotiations are currently underway to potentially acquire an additional block of apartments on the site to bring the total number of affordable homes to 18. This is a revision to the mix previously agreed by cabinet.”
The report also says that part of the motivation for purchasing extra plots is also due to financial problems being experienced by Sandway Homes due to a reduction in demand.
It states: “Negotiations are currently underway to acquire both apartment blocks on the site for social rent increasing the total number of affordable homes on the site to 18 x one and two bed apartments, compared to the planning policy compliant requirement of 13 units.
“This is due to market changes affecting Sandway which have seen a reduced demand for apartment sale properties, and in order to ensure that the first tranche of council housing is sustainable. ”
The council is currently waiting on agreement from Homes England to provide grant funding for acquiring the properties, with an updated report set to be brought to cabinet in May to seek approval for the amended plans.
In anticipation of acquiring the properties, the council registered as a social landlord, having been approved in November 2021.
The council have made use of external consultants in order to bring the plans forward and is also set to appoint a managing agent for the scheme in the summer.
Plans are also set to be developed to purchase units from two other Sandway Homes developments – one at the former site of Bootle High in Netherton and the other at Bentham’s way in Southport – using Homes England grant funding bringing the total to 46 council-owned homes over the next five years.
A revised proposal for Buckley Hill Lane is expected to brought to councillors in June.
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