Council reveals cost of purchase

NORTH Devon Council has revealed the multi-million pound price it spent to buy Green Lanes Shopping Centre in Barnstaple.

Responding to a Freedom of Information request by WMN sister website DevonLive, the council said it paid £8.2 million for the property, with an annual loan repayment of £460,000.

As previously stated by the council, the loan was given by the Public Works Loan Board and will be paid off using revenue from the shopping centre.

Green Lanes currently makes more than this in a year, and the council plans to use the excess profit to invest back into the town centre.

The council received backlash online for not revealing the price when the purchase was first announced on November 11.

However, the council has confirmed that the seller requested a confidentiality clause in the contracts due to “commercial sensitivity”.

In 2015, the previous owners of Green Lanes paid £36.1 million for the centre, and, in 2018 and 2019, NDC engaged in discussions to buy the centre, but ultimately decided against it as the asking price was too high.

Jon Triggs, North Devon Council’s director of resources and deputy chief executive, explained the decision-making behind the purchase that he believes will “enhance visitor experience”. He said that the financial modelling used to inform the council’s decisionmaking looked at rental yields, assumed rental values, assumed market changes, lease expiry and break assumptions, adopted void periods and permanent voids and income from car parking.

Mr Triggs described this as a “prudent approach” and that possible market changes were taken into account which will ensure that council tax money is not needed to cover loan repayments if the financial modelling does not pan out. He said: “The financial modelling demonstrated that revenue income generated from the centre will cover both the repayment of the loan and asset management costs.

“It will return a contribution to the council which can be used towards mitigating future risks on income volatility, investment back into the centre, investment in other regeneration projects across the district and contribute back into the NDC revenue budget to help bridge future budget gaps.

“By providing a positive financial return to the council from Green Lanes overall, it means that there is no impact on the council tax payer; if anything, it is actually reducing the impact on the council tax payer.”