Wednesday 4 November 2015

Local council incompetence reaches rage-inducing levels.

From the BBC:

A pre-fabricated property dubbed a "shed" in south-east London has been auctioned off for just under £1m. The 1950s bungalow situated on 0.6 acres of land in Peckham contains three rooms, a kitchen and unfitted bathroom.

Described as "dilapidated", Southwark Council said it was "extremely pleased" it sold for £950,000. The money raised for the property, which is not thought to have been lived in since 2002, will be ploughed back into the council's housing programme.


FFS. They did not sell "a shed", they sold land which will be worth at least £3 million* if it had appropriate planning consents, planning consents which the very same local council will now be granting to the lucky new owner.

* Call it four terraced/town houses similar to the ones on the left of the picture along the front of plot, plus another four along the back, sell them for £600,000 each (according to the article) = £4.8 million, knock off 8 x £100,000 build costs = £4 million, round it down to £3 million for margin of error.

7 comments:

mombers said...

£950k one off sale vs a perpetual and growing income for the council if they had leased it out. Outright theft if you ask me.

Bayard said...

I wonder how they managed to rig the auction.

Mark Wadsworth said...

M, clearly, retaining the site and renting it out is even better than selling it, but either way, £950k is either total incompetence or as B suspects, outright corruption

B, me too. Similar sites sell for £millions.

Bayard said...

Well the army sold a house down here in West Wales by public auction. The auction was in Bootle.

James Higham said...

Just posted on this too. It's apoplexy producing, as you say.

Bayard said...

M, it has occurred to me that there might have been absolutely no publicity - a very short announcement in the "public notices" section of the local newspaper, where the print is small and which no-one ever reads. "It was on display at the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying beware of the leopard."

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, there is a bit more detail about the auction in The Telegraph.