Council leader stands by Riverside House sale in Leamington despite MP's call for a rethink

The Labour member of parliament for Warwick and Leamington this week circulated his second letter to Councillor Ian Davison (Green, Leamington Brunswick) on the matter, repeating his request for a review of the decision, including a full public consultation, to sell off Riverside House in Leamington, for housing.

In it, Mr Western calls on the council, which is now led by a Green Party-Labour coalition following the local elections results in May, to retain the site solely for social housing.

He argues that allowing Homes England to develop it “will not deliver” the “truly affordable housing” required “to address the housing emergency we face locally”.

The decision to sell off the land was taken by the Conservatives when they were in charge but Cllr Davison not only believes it is too late to “row back”, he also describes himself as “pretty comfortable” with the position.

His reasons include the complexity of developing the Riverside House plot and the scale of housing projects that the council is already involved with.

He also argues the authority has done a “great job” of providing council housing, irrespective of which party was in power, over a number of years.

The cabinet, the panel of Green and Labour councillors in charge of the district’s major service areas, is due to discuss the situation but Cllr Davison would be “surprised” if his colleagues were to advocate change at this point.

“The plans are well advanced,” said Cllr Davison.

“We haven’t signed an agreement with Homes England yet but we hope that we are close to that and if that works it would seem rather foolish to pause now, jeopardise that and start again.

“The wheels of local government don’t always go fast, it is not as if we can make a decision next week on what else to do. That would leave a lot of time, whether it would be six months or years I don’t know, so it doesn’t seem to be a good idea at this late stage.

“As Matt knows, the decision was made by the last administration and he is asking us to row back on that. As a cabinet, we don’t see a good reason to do that.”

On social housing, Cllr Davison said: “The current view of the council is that 100 per cent social housing in any area is not a good idea. You are in danger of creating less good neighbourhoods.

"Our view is that you want to mix in the different forms of housing, you shouldn’t be able to tell ‘that’s a council house, that’s an Orbit house, that’s a private house’, it should be that people get on with their lives without any stigmatisation like that.”

He said the council had recently acquired homes for social rent and cited the old school site in Kenilworth as a project that it is looking to develop.

“It is not like we don’t think there should be affordable housing or that we are not doing a lot,” he continued.

“I would say that over many years, the district council has done a great job of having council houses."

The council is in the process of vacating Riverside House and maintaining it. Even when empty, is expected to cost a six-figure sum per year, increasing the pressure to act swiftly.

Asked whether the position would change if the council had more time, Cllr Davison replied: “Personally, I am pretty comfortable with it.

“We are pursuing lots of other housing and other schemes, so it is a question of how much you take on.

“They all link to debt and risk as well. If you have an empty building, there is a risk that a few years later you have wasted an awful lot of money.

“There are a lot of projects going on, the council is very ambitious in pursuing developments like this but it would be foolish to try to take them all on (for council housing specifically).

“It is a complex site. There is a floodplain, there is a massive sewer, there is an underground stream, so it is not easy.

“Homes England is a public body that tends to take on challenging areas and put them to good use, it is not selling it to the normal, open market, we are pretty confident they will do a good job in providing housing.”