Brent to sell off surplus residential properties

Brent Cabinet on Monday LINK will be asked to approve plans to dispose of surplus Council property 'at the best value that could be currently obtained in the market. The disposals would generate capital receipts to support corporative objectives.'

Some of the properties will be disposed of to the Council's wholly owned company Invest for Brent (I4B). See LINK for background of Invest for Brent.

The property is varied:

8 Coniston Gardens. NW9 OBD - former 3 bedroomed school keeper's house for Oliver Goldsmith Primary School.Will be sold to I4B at market value for use in the privately rented sector (PRS) programme.

67 Woodheyes Road, NW10 9DE - terraced house compulsorily purchased by the Council's Empty Property Team last year.  Will be sold to I4B at market value under PRS scheme.

Property X (address not revealed to safeguard personal data of owner).  Will be sold via an arms-length transaction on the open market to realise funds for payment of the owner's residential care fees.

27 Claremont Road, W9 3DZ - ex mental health hostel handed back to Council as surplus to requirements by Adult Social Care in December 2015. Unsuccessfully marketed for conversion in 2016.  Cost of internal decoration and modernisation rendered many alternative options unviable. Recommended to take to market in its current un-refurbished condition.

3 Kent Road, Stantonbury, Milton Keynes, MK14 6BA - managed by Milton Keynes Council under historic arrangement with Brent.  To be considered for I4B programme in first instance, if not suitable to be sold on the open market for a capital receipt.

18 Alliance Close, HAO 2NG - flat managed by North West London NHS Foundation Trust. Handed back to Council as no longer fit for purpose for client group. Being considered or I4B programme and it not suitable will be sold on open market for capital receipt.

It would be useful to have some further information on how the capital receipts will be used.

'Sell Off' - The abolition of the NHS. Free film screening Wembley Nov 3rd

Free film screening in Wembley (followed by a discussion with Dr Bob Gill)

Thursday November 3rd from 6.30pm

Hospitals around the country are under imminent threat of closure, and our NHS is being privatised, dismantled and taken away from us. This one-hour documentary entitled 'Sell Off' explains how it has happened, for how long, and by whom. Please join us to find out what we're up against, and to discuss what we can do to stop and reverse it.

This important free NHS film event takes place in Wembley. The venue is the IHRC (Book Shop), 202 Preston Road (close to Preston Road tube station), Wembley, HA9 8PA.

http://www.facebook.com/events/1124280487662983/

Greens oppose Royal Mail sell off

The Green Party this weekend agreed to oppose the Royal Mail sell off.

Green Party condemns Royal Mail sell-off and supports CWU resistance

Responding to the announcement yesterday by Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable that a majority stake in the Royal Mail would be sold off by the government, Green Party leader Natalie Bennett said:

The privatisation of Royal Mail is the latest ideologically driven, disastrous step by this government which is doing nothing to start the essential reshaping of the British economy, but is determined to hand over the last bits of the family silver to multinational companies.

The approach of privatisation has proved disastrous for our water system, disastrous for our electricity and gas supplies, and particularly disastrous for our railways. Yet still the push towards it, from Margaret Thatcher through Tony Blair to David Cameron continues.

Green MP Caroline Lucas, with her private members' bill to bring the railways back into public ownership is leading the way to reverse this trend. What we need is for the Labour Party to show that it has broken with its New Labour past and back it. That would add a sense of verisimilitude to Labour’s criticisms in parliament today of the Royal Mail move.

Bennett offered congratulations to the CWU and the Royal Mail workers, who are resisting the government's attempts to buy them off with a share handout to staff:
 
They understand that privatisation is a devil's pact that inevitably results in damage to staff pay and conditions, cuts to services, and profits stuffed into shareholder's pockets, all too often through the conduit of tax havens.