Selling 17 old houses 'win-win' for council stock

Seventeen older vacant council houses will be sold to the private sector in efforts to raise money for future social housing projects, a local authority has said.

Douglas Council confirmed half of its 35 properties on Marathon Road and Falcon Cliff Terrace, which need "significant investment", would be sold individually to avoid them being bought by a developer, with the rest sold as they became vacant.

Income from sales would be reinvested into new stock for tenants - including plans to develop a block of homes in the city centre.

Council leader Devon Watson said as well providing money its own projects, it would bolster availability in the private sector creating a "win-win" for tenants.

The first six homes would go up for sale in the coming weeks, he said.

Watson said: "There's not enough social housing, we've got about 250 people on the waiting list."

He said selling the homes would allow the council to use those financial resources to "build more social housing that is desperately needed, rather than holding on to an asset that we ourselves that we can't do up ourselves".

"The most cost-effective and efficient way we can do this is [to] partner with the private sector [and] sell some vacant properties... it's a win-win.

"It's tenants first - if it doesn't work for them, then [the scheme] fundamentally doesn't work."

Watson said an expression of interest would be released in the coming days for a new social housing block.

Chairman of the council's Housing and Property Committee Peter Washington said: "Rather than refurbishing ageing properties one-by-one which would cause major disruption, with many tenants needing to move out for months, we believe the best approach is to invest in new homes.

"This is very much a long-term project and tenants can remain in their homes. If, in the future, a property can no longer be repaired to the standard they deserve, we would work together to find a suitable alternative, always with the full support of our housing team."

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