Monday's meeting of the outgoing Brent Cabinet is set to approve housing acquisitions from developers totalling more than £40,000,000.
The first acquisition on the South Kilburn estate is 1-8 Neville House, 1-64 Winterleys, 113-128 Carlton House and Carlton Hall - collectively known as NWCC.
101 affordable housing units will be acquired from a preferred bidder selected as a development partner and will be subject to GLA funding of £100,000 per unit. A total of £10.1m.
The overall purchase price has been withheld under the Local Government Act:
By Virtue of Paragraph 3
Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)
The developer has been asked to review the housing mix of the development so as to provide a greater number of family units but the Appendix 1 referring to the mix is not available to the public. I have asked Brent Council in the public interest to make that available.
The Report before the Cabinet says that these will be secure tenancies let at South Kilburn Social Rent levels.
The Report states:
The purchase of the affordable units will be achieved under the terms of a development, sale and purchase agreement with a developer partner. The recommendation to purchase is subject to the Preferred Bidder being selected as the developer partner. The council has proposed to the Preferred Bidder that subject to its selection, this agreement must be entered into by 30 September 2022. If it is not then the Preferred Bidder (assuming that they are the developer partner) can then sell the affordable units to another registered provider.
The development, sale and purchase agreement will also contain all the appropriate development obligation from the developer partner in relation to the affordable homes. The council will have the right, inter alia, to include its specification for the affordable homes, its nomination agreement, details of the handover protocols and the defects liability and snagging procedures in the development, sales and purchase agreement. The freehold development, sales and purchase agreement will also include the council’s specific delivery measures and set payment terms.
Detailed negotiations are delegated to the Strategic Director for Community Wellbeing and the Lead Member for Housing.
This is the purchase of 115 'affordable' rent flats on a 999 year lease at a price of £30.27m (including fees). The rent would be capped at the Local Housing Allowance level.
The mix is:
The price per unit at £250,000 is below the £280k level of the New Council Homes Programme.
Liberal Democrat councillor for Alperton, Anton Georgiou, told Wembley Matters,
Whilst I welcome the news that the Council are seeking to increase their own housing stock, I’m concerned that this purchase is of too many 1 bed units and not enough large units - which is what we know Brent is desperately short of.
We have always been told that the Council has a surplus of 1 bedroom flats, so why are they buying more?The Council should be negotiating a better mix of units to help families in the most need. Until they do, we won’t even begin to make a dent in our huge housing waiting list.
Delegate authority to the Strategic Director of Regeneration & Environment in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Property and Planning, to negotiate and agree the terms and thereafter enter into a contract with the developer for the purchase of the scheme and make any necessary additional amendments required to the contract thereafter.
The exchange of contracts is targeted for May 2022.
See this Minute from the Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny discussion of 'affordable' housing for information LINK
