Council housing stock valued at £25.5m

Rochdale Council’s housing stock is to be sold to Rochdale Boroughwide Housing for £25.5million.

The borough’s council houses have been valued using a Tenanted Market Valuation (TMV) formula set by the government.

The housing stock is set to be bought by current council house managers RBH, which is being transformed into a co-operative.

The new RBH Co-operative will pay £25.5m for 13,664 homes, 1,606 garages, 83 shops, 8 community centres and around 40 playgrounds.

A report presented at Rochdale Council’s Cabinet meeting last night, read: “The TMV assumes that the housing will continue to be used as social rented housing in the future and is based upon a comparison of income and expenditure associated with the stock over a 30 year period.

“These 30 year financial projections are then discounted to reflect the value of money over time. The valuation of the housing stock is currently £25.5m.

“This will not however provide a useable capital receipt as the transfer price must be used to pay off part of the Council’s £241m housing debt at the date of transfer.

“DCLG (Department for Communities and Local Government) will make arrangements to provide overhanging debt grant to pay off the remaining £215.5m of debt.”

The report that went before the Cabinet will now proceed to the full council.