Blame game continues in row over Parkway homes

District council and developers still in dispute over who is at fault for delay

THE bitter two-and-a-half-year row over the ‘scandal’ of publically-subsidised affordable homes lying empty at Parkway is a step closer to being resolved – but both West Berkshire Council and the developer are still blaming each other for the delay.

In 2008, the district council paid £900,000 of taxpayers’ money to developer Standard Life Investments (SLI) to ensure that 37 of the 147 homes built were affordable.

The 37 units were completed in early 2013, but are still unoccupied almost three years later owing to SLI’s failure to appoint a social housing provider to manage them.

In August 2015, SLI announced it had finally exchanged contracts with One Housing Group – a leading developer and provider of homes and housing in London and the South East – but the deal has still not been completed.

Last year the council took the unprecedented step of blocking the sale of any new private homes at the development after tiring of SLI’s delays in appointing a housing provider and earlier this year the council took legal action against the developer for breach of contract and breach of Section 106 agreement.

The blocking of the sale of new private homes meant that at least 14 people have been unable to move into their properties, despite paying deposits and exchanging contracts.

Last week the council announced it would now start signing off the leases of those who have already exchanged contracts to purchase a property at Parkway after seeing that “progress was being made”.

However that is not the end of the story.

Before construction began at the site, the council sold public land to SLI for £1 on the basis that a fee, believed to be between £250,000 and £300,000, was received in parking revenue each year.

The Newbury Weekly News revealed that the council has not yet received a penny owing to the affordable homes row.

The council says that once the affordable homes issues is resolved it can transfer the land to SLI.

Once that is done the council would receive its share of the car parking revenue, now thought to be in the region of £1m.

SLI paints a different picture, though, with the developer claiming the exchange of contracts was never linked to the transfer of the land and saying the council decided to “unilaterally link the two” so it could block the sale of private homes.

This week, both West Berkshire Council and SLI released statements saying they were frustrated by the delay.

Gordon Lundie, leader of the council, said: “There have been significant frustrations with the delay in the delivery of the affordable housing in recent months.”

David Stewart, fund manager at SLI, said: “We are delighted that the council has now resumed signing leases for the sale of some of the private homes at Parkway.

“For these Newbury residents it will be a welcome end to the unnecessarily protracted delay that, as we have consistently said, has been beyond Standard Life Investments’ control.”