Decision details

93 Westcliff Road, Ramsgate was a long term empty property and was purchased initially as part of the Empty Property Project. Due to the extent of the refurbishment costs it was decided to withdraw the property from the project and fund the refurbishment costs through 1-4-1 receipts.

Cabinet agreed the use of HRA balances and one-for-one receipts to undertake the development and refurbishment works at 93 Westcliff Road, Ramsgate.

1.  The proposal will return an empty council owned property to residential use.

2.  It utilises the right-to-buy 1 for 1 receipt funding, which would otherwise have to be returned to central government if not used by December 2015.

The alternative considered was to disposal of the property by open market sale. This was rejected as:

1.  It would not ensure the building was effectively returned to use.

2.  The Council would lose some of the investment it had made when purchasing the property.

3.  The risk that some of the right-to-buy 1 for 1 receipt funding would have to be returned to government would increase.