Councillor’s decision to put brakes on housing development flawed, says Ombudsman
Date of article: 19/01/2022
Daily News of: 24/01/2022
Country: United Kingdom
- England
Author: Local Government Ombudsmen for England
Article language: en
A Haringey man was left in limbo for six years while the council decided whether to buy his house and develop the land around it, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman heard.
The man lives in a row of terraced homes which are part private-owned and part owned by the council. The council contacted the man in 2014 about its intentions for housing development on land which included his home.
Because no progress was made for some years, in August 2018 the man entered an agreement that gave a developer the right to buy the man’s home for £1.75 million should he wish to sell it. Two days after he had signed the agreement the council contacted him about the possible purchase of his home.
The next month the council’s Cabinet agreed to buy both the neighbouring property and the man’s home. The council bought the neighbour’s home for £2.15 million in June 2019, but the man was not free to sell his house because of the agreement with the developer.