Conservatives criticised the move as a second ‘bail out’ for the council’s own housing development company, Sixty Bricks, reports Josh Mellor, Local Democracy Reporter

Jazz Yard Walthamstow, Credit: Sixty Bricks

Waltham Forest’s housing lead has defended his team’s decision to buy 13 unsold flats from the council’s own housing development company.

Last month, council leader Grace Williams’ cabinet agreed to use £5.4million from the council’s housing account to buy the flats, which are part of the 83-home Jazz Yard development in Brunner Road, Walthamstow.

But Waltham Forest’s Conservative group then “called in” this decision citing a number of financial concerns including whether the council’s housebuilding company Sixty Bricks is still “viable”.

In a response at Waltham Forest’s housing scrutiny meeting last week, cabinet member for housing and regeneration Ahsan Khan confirmed that the council’s cabinet and finance team are confident that the company is “viable going forward”.

He said the thirteen one-bed flats, which had been on the market for about £430,000 each, remained unsold because of “market conditions” such as the ending of the help-to-buy scheme and rising interest rates.

Part of the reason for the council buying the homes to sell through the shared-ownership scheme is that Sixty Bricks would otherwise “fall short” of its income target for 2022/23, Cllr Khan added.

One of the Conservative’s concerns was that buying the thirteen flats was the company’s second “bail out”.

Sixty Bricks’ first phase of building 299 homes has seen its construction budget increase from £87.5m to £94.9m, while its overall profit is predicted to fall from £2.9m to £1.8m.

Ahsan Khan speaking at the housing commission launch. Credit: Waltham Forest Council

In a detailed report, senior housing officers wrote that buying the flats would help make more money for the council’s housing account as well as generate a “social value benefit” by providing more affordable homes.

They added that in the future the types of flats Sixty Bricks builds will be reviewed to “optimise value” and the scale of developments will be increased to “reduce its reliance on sales” to fund operating costs.

When a decision is called in, senior officers will not carry it out until it has been discussed further at a scrutiny committee meeting where it is confirmed, referred back to cabinet with recommendations or referred to the next full meeting of the borough’s councillors.

Conservative committee member John Moss said there did not seem to be “much point” in proposing a vote to refer the decision back to cabinet.

After a long pause, the Labour committee members confirmed cabinet’s original decision which will now be implemented. The Conservatives abstained.

Update: This article was amended to say that Labour committee members confirmed the cabinet’s decision.

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