Plan to overhaul former army housing estate
Royal Borough: Purchase of Cavalry Crescent site could provide 63 homes
The Royal Borough is set to spend more than £22million to purchase a former defence estate property in Windsor following a council meeting on Tuesday.
However, opposition councillors have expressed doubts over the quality of the homes, uncertainties surrounding the purchase and a lack of detailed evidence in the council’s pursuit of the site.
At Tuesday’s meeting of full council, elected representatives voted on a referral from cabinet regarding the purchase of a site in Cavalry Crescent, Windsor.
Formerly used by defence personnel, the site contains 53 two to three-bedroom houses, and room for 10 new build apartments.
Owned by Annington Property Limited, the freehold to the vacant land is to be sold by Annington Homes on the open market.
On Tuesday, councillors discussed whether to approve the capital expenditure budget of £22,550,202 (including interest and fees) to acquire the land.
Cllr David Hilton (Con, Ascot & Sunningdale) presented a report which confirmed this would be added to the 2022/23, 2023/24 and
2024/25 capital programmes and cover ‘the acquisition cost for the delivery of the proposed schemes, the on-costs including professional and survey fees, stamp duty land tax (SDLT), development allowance and capitalised interest’.
“Managed by [RBWM Property Company], 53 market rent and 10 affordable rent provides, in collaboration with this borough’s housing department, the opportunity to meet a range of housing needs in the borough, including moving residents in temporary accommodation into permanent homes,” explained Cllr Hilton.
However, concerns came from the opposition over plans to buy the site.
Cllr Helen Price (tBFI, Clewer and Dedworth East) raised concerns about the quality of the homes that are going to be refurbished.
She said: “My understanding, from speaking to locals who live there, is that the quality of homes is extremely poor, so [on] the cost of refurbishment, I question ‘is that the best thing to do rather than knock down and rebuild?’
“Has the true cost been built in? What happens if the cost of refurbishment is far higher than was initially predicted? Are we going to have to bail out Annington because they got the sums wrong?”
Cllrs Jon Davey (Ind, Clewer and Dedworth West) and Carole da Costa (WWRA, Clewer and Dedworth East) also questioned why the council was not looking at rebuilding the properties, whilst Cllr Geoff Hill (tBFI, Oldfield) expressed concerns over a lack of detail in the report.
Despite not initially intending to speak, council leader Andrew Johnson (Con, Hurley & the Walthams) sought to address issues raised during the debate.
“Looking at the fundamentals, why are we doing this?” said Cllr Johnson.
“It’s not because we want to be landlords in our own right; it’s because we want to take a number of properties that are currently dilapidated, we want to see them, by the vendor, brought up to a good standard, and we want to rent them out to local people – people within Windsor, who are struggling to afford open market rent.
“We will be looking carefully at the price point for this, we will be looking carefully at the allocations, we will be delivering affordable housing and we will be giving the opportunity to genuinely local people to purchase these.”
The motion was approved following a named vote with 24 for, two against and ten abstentions.