Suffolk County Council set to pull out of housing company

Suffolk County Council look set to withdraw from a housing company it established three years ago with two neighbouring local authorities.

The county council’s cabinet meets today (11 September) to discuss ending its involvement with Barley Homes (Group) Limited, which was created in 2015.

The housing company is jointly owned by Suffolk, Forest Heath District Council and St Edmundsbury Borough Council.

St Edmundsbury Borough Council and Forest Heath District Council are set to merge as West Suffolk Council in April 2019.

‘Based on experience, the county council and West Suffolk councils have agreed that it is simpler and more effective if the county council withdraws from the company,’ the cabinet report states.

‘This will reduce the complexity around governance, bureaucracy, overheads and duplication associated with three shareholders owning the company.’

Instead, the report says the county council will focus on ‘its wider strategic role’ in the delivery of housing, with the district and borough councils can ‘lead on local schemes’.

When it was originally set up, Suffolk had a 50% stake in Barley Homes and the two district councils owned 25% each.

The cabinet report recommends transferring Suffolk’s holding to the two district councils.

‘It is anticipated that the West Suffolk councils will take forward Barley Homes (Group) Limited as an entity to support the delivery of housing in the West Suffolk area,’ the report adds.

The leader of the Liberal Democrat, Green and Independent Group at Suffolk County Council, Cllr Andrew Stringer commented: ‘The whole point of that project was to generate desperately-needed income whilst also building much-needed homes our county could be proud of.

‘After two years, not a single house has been built, countless hours and resources have been spent, and we’re still facing a housing crisis in Suffolk.  What exactly have they been doing all this time?

‘I find it remarkable that I, as a private citizen, have managed to build more houses in the last two years in my spare time than Barley Homes has,’ added Cllr Stringer.

‘We believe the future for the county council in bringing forward sustainable housing development is to form partnerships with experienced stakeholders on a case-by-case basis, such as we recently have in Cockfield. More importantly, we have the opportunity, as the third biggest landowner in Suffolk, to promote skilled Suffolk tradespeople and suppliers.’

Speaking on behalf of the two West Suffolk district councils, cabinet member for housing, Cllr Sara Mildmay-White, said: ‘Barley Homes provides a significant opportunity to make best use of public assets and deliver the right homes to support our local communities. It also means the local West Suffolk tax payer will see the community and financial benefits rather than the commercial sector which would have been unlikely to deliver these much needed schemes.

‘The proposed changes to the partnership will reduce governance, bureaucracy, overheads and duplication. At the same time allowing the county to still provide support to West Suffolk delivering economic and housing growth in the future. We will be bringing an interim business case for the way forward for Barley Homes to our own councillors in due course.’