In-house EH renovation by LA

Forum Topic submitted by Ray White on

I am looking into the possibility of Plymouth City Council purchasing, renovating and selling/letting empty homes in the city. We already do most of the things other LAs do, CPOs, EDMOs, enforced sale, and a loan (and previously grant) system for homeowners to renovate to a standard to let properties. (We are not a housing stock holding authority).

I am interested in the money making part of the process! Currently a building will be taken on by a developer, renovated and the profit stays with the developer – and to some extent the type of development is out of the council’s control. Does anyone have experience of doing this within a local authority setting? Obviously, the intention is to get properties back into use, simultaneously generate an income stream for the council, to then reinvest in properties and so on.

Any thoughts, information, advice very much appreciated!

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Gwenda Owen replied on

Good morning - At Anglesey we have received some capital funding from the Council and had some regeneration funding to purchase long term empty problematic properties in need of renovation We then renovate the properties and sell them on to local first time buyers at a percentage discount of the market value.; We retain equity in the propertyand this is covered by a legal charge. On sale of the property, the owners would re-pay the Council at the percentage discount originally given based on the current market value/sale price Should you wish to discuss the scheme further please email me your contact details and I will give you a call.

We also successfully acquired a problematic old snooker hall and house and the Council, who has retained their Council Housing Stock, have demolished the property and obtained planning permission to build 4 x 1 bedroom flats and 2 x 2 bedroom houses These will be added to the Council Stock and will be offered for rent at market value; We are pursuing a similar scheme in another area, where it is hoped that the properties will be rented at intermediate rent levels. This will require acquisition of the site by CPO.

 

Empty Property ... replied on

The draw back I find with a LA generating income from a CPO is the  Stamp Duty and compensation payments. If a CPO property is developed after acquisition the SD may be reclaimed.

Ray White replied on

Dear Gwenda, I emailed to say let's talk about this further if we could. My email is ray.white@plymouth.gov.uk (I admit I did my best 'guess the local authority email' which often works...:)

And, I'm not sure how the forum works in terms of where subsequent posts appear, so in answer to the post by Empty Homes, I was probably eering away from CPO, thinking more of run down properties that could be purchased in 'the open market'...