Council eye up deal on Roots Hall homes
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Southend Council is keen on conjuring up a deal to help manage the ambitious plans to build 502 homes on Roots Hall, once Southend United has moved out.
The housing plans, which were unveiled last month, will move forward if the football club successfully gains planning permission to build a new 21,000-seater stadium at Fossetts Farm.
To help fund the move, senior councillors are now considering formulating a potentially lucrative deal, with the developer Citizen Housing, where the authority would become the site’s leaseholder.
While this is likely to come at a significant cost to the council, it would mean the authority would have a management role and retain income earned through properties rented at the site.
Furthermore, once the leasehold term ends, the council could gain full ownership of the development, and all future income.
The immediate benefits to the developer and landowner Citizen Housing would be a hefty cash injection from the council in return for leaseholder status.
However, details of any deal remain vague as plans for Roots Hall are still being refined.
But it is expected that 170 of the 500 homes will be affordable housing, with up to 100 of those social rented.
The council’s cabinet will explore the possibility of a deal during a meeting next Tuesday.
Council leader Ian Gilbert hopes any deal would again show the council’s commitment to getting people off the streets and into their own homes.
He said: “As part of our joint administration agreement, we promised to provide new social housing and key worker housing as a priority.
“I am pleased to announce that we have already identified some families in temporary accommodation who are now in a position to move into their new homes, and that’s before Christmas.
“Southend is among the least affordable places to live in the UK when you consider the average local wage against the average property rental price.
“At the same time, the demand for truly affordable housing continues to exponentially outstrip supply.”
The meeting will also include a discussion purchasing 16 private properties that can be converted into social housing, three of which have already bought and another 13 are under offer.
In total they are expected to cost £4.14million financed through money from the right-to-buy scheme, that allowed council house tenants to purchase their homes, and through reserves in the council’s Housing Revenue Account – a pot of money used for managing housing revenue and expenditure.
They are expected to create a “revolving investment fund” where the profit generated through renting the properties is used to finance a range other housing projects, including more council homes.
Similar plans could see 24 flats built on the Ilfracombe Avenue car park in Southchurch and revenue from that development being used to carry out the refurbishment of Southchurch Library.
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