Bucks Council labelled as 'disgrace' for selling properties without affordable housing plan

Conservative council leader Martin Tett recently admitted his organisation was ‘running out of assets’ to offload and ‘if it was easy to sell, we have sold it’.

But councillors from across the political spectrum say asset disposals to developers should provide new homes for people on low incomes.

Tory Councillor Isobel Darby told a meeting of the growth, infrastructure and housing select committee on Thursday she was ‘worried’ by deals such as the council’s recent sale of its King George V House offices in Amersham to a developer.

The councillor said the redevelopment of the site ‘intends’ to include affordable housing, but the number of homes is not known due to it being an ‘unconditional’ deal.

She added: “Why are we disposing of council assets in unconditional deals when we could actually be saying ‘this needs to be done?’”

Councillor Mark Winn replied: “To be honest I can’t answer that question.”

But Councillor Winn faced further scrutiny over the affordable homes provision, including from Councillor Stuart Wilson who said, ‘we have to build more’ because changing policies is ‘not enough’.

The Independent said it was an ‘absolute travesty’ that Dandara’s plans to replace High Wycombe’s Chilterns Shopping Centre with 303 new homes did not include affordable housing.

He added: “We, as members of this council, should never ever let that happen again when property is being brought forward as it is with King George V House. I think it is a disgrace, an absolute disgrace.”

As an example, Councillor Wilson said a couple with two children – soon to be three – in his Wooburns ward were ‘growing beyond their two-bed property’, with the father unable to work and awaiting surgery.

The mother is in the priority Band B of the council’s waiting list for social housing but would ‘slip down the list’ to Band E in Aylesbury where she has been looking for a new home, according to Councillor Wilson.

He said: “It is just wrong, and we are treating people badly, and I just want to know what we are going to do differently about it. I feel quite emotional about this because it is really, really sad.”

But Councillor Winn said the woman in the example would remain in the same category under changes to the council’s policy.

He added: “In terms of building new homes, if we can build more, we will. We need to look at different ways of doing it.”

The council does not own any social housing stock, but helps people find homes with one of its ‘registered providers’.

During the same meeting, Councillor Thomas Hogg also grilled the cabinet member about asset sales, stressing the council had the power to dictate how its former sites were used.

The Tory asked: “What are you doing in your role in cabinet to make sure that council-owned land is not being unconditionally sold off without making sure that there is social housing as part of the agreement?”

Councillor Winn said the council’s main consideration when selling assets was to get the best price for its land, but stressed that there needed to be a ‘balance’ and social housing was being built on some former sites.