Decision details

The purpose of this report is to seek permission for a house formerly used to accommodate a school caretaker to be declared surplus to requirements for the purposes of exercising education functions and appropriated for the purposes of Part II of the Housing Act 1985 to be used as general needs accommodation let at an affordable rent and accounted for in the HRA.

That the Executive Director, People Services:-

(i) Declares that the house at 9 Waterthorpe Glade, Westfield, shown at Appendix 1 to this report, is surplus to requirements for the purpose of exercising education functions; and

That the Executive Director, Place:-

(i) Agrees that the house at 9 Waterthorpe Glade, shown at Appendix 1 to this report, be appropriated for the purposes of Part II of the Housing Act 1985 and accounted for in the Housing Revenue Account; and

(ii) agrees that the Director of Finance and Commercial Services in consultation with the Director of Housing and Neighbourhood Services and the Chief Property Officer may make a reasonable financial adjustment between holding accounts as described in the report.

Retaining the property for use as social housing will contribute to the Council’s priority of increasing the availability of affordable housing in the city, whilst also providing an ongoing revenue stream through rental income.

Open Market Disposal: once declared surplus, if there were no interest from other Council departments the property would have been marketed for sale on the open market. Whilst this would have generated an immediate capital receipt, control over the use of the property and the opportunity to retain it for use as social housing would have been lost.