A total of 10 apartments at Newport’s Woodbine Close may be bought by the Isle of Wight Council for over £1million.
The Isle of Wight Council’s adult social care, public health and housing needs committee will this week consider whether to endorse the purchase of Kiln House in Newport’s Woodbine Close, to continue providing temporary accommodation for those in need.
The Isle of Wight Council currently provides temporary accommodation for over 200 households, according to a committee report.
Its Kiln House proposal follows an upward trend in the number of households on the housing register over the last few years, a figure which currently stands at 2,644, as of 31st December last year.
Isle of Wight residents register for social housing via the Island HomeFinder system.
The committee report says:
“The building (Kiln House) consists of ten flats which are currently leased to the council,”
“The building is being sold and so the purchase will ensure that the councils’ statutory duties in relation to housing can continue to be met.
Article continues below this advertisement “The council is currently providing temporary accommodation for in excess of 200 households. This accommodation is sourced largely from third parties. There is currently a reliance on bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodation, and the council has committed to a reduction in this area.”
A risk of County Hall not purchasing Kiln House will be that the council’s stock of temporary accommodation is depleted, officers have warned.
Resulting re-provision could involve B&B accommodation and increased costs.
The committee report recommends approving the purchase of Kiln House because it will maintain the council’s ability to not use B&B accommodation for families.
It says retaining an alternative to B&B provision will in turn support poverty reduction. The policy, finance and resources committee is also due to consider the purchase.
Councillors will meet to discuss the proposal at County Hall on Thursday at 17:00.
Some joined up thinking would be nice. Didn’t the IW Council sell off a large property on Robin Hood Street – containing about 10 or more flats for a quarter of this price? It was bought up quickly. IW Council Tax payers money would have been put to better use to have kept the property at Robin Hood Street than spending 1 million now to buy this building to have less accommodation.
Does the Council have 1 million pounds?
“Does the Council have 1 million pounds?”
well some of it may come from the to-be-introduced additional parking charges….
Of course the initial cause of it was Thatcher & the CONservaties selling off all the council houses, (and utilities) to fund tax-cuts for the rich…
councils used to own loads of properties… & the rent charged went to fund local services….
but now,. it’s all about private landlord ownership & all the (extortionate) rent money going into the landlords pockets…
So the council aren’t as skint as they make put
And how many of them will go to islanders or will they be used for the influx of migrants that seem to be appearing on the island.
It’s happening all round the country, it’s called
Diversifying
Lol
Too be honest from what I have seen from many
numpties who have moved to the island over the
years, give me a migrant any day of the week.
I must say over the years I have met many genuine
born and bred islanders who are very nice people, sadly
the island has been overwhelmed with mainlanders
moving over and many of them are not so nice.
Careful, this could be migrant housing by the back door.
Buy it. no matter what happens to the scheme you still have the value of the property over time there is only one way the value will go and thats up