Calderdale Council sells off part of its land to see 'homes for life' built

Calderdale Council’s Cabinet agreed to dispose of the site known as St Andrews at Brighouse, which will bring a capital receipt of £180,000 to the council, to Connect Housing which will build seven new homes on the site.

Although this is less than the site might reach on the open market – it has been independently valued at £300,000 – the price is significantly higher than the standard £5,000 per plot the council generally works with and meets a policy aim of seeing new affordable homes, of which there is a shortage, built in the borough, councillors were briefed.

Councillors have also been told a bungalow on the site has been broken into, incurring costs, and the empty property on the land would also be subject to double the level of Council Tax – £2,300 – from 2020-21 onwards.

The council’s Deputy Leader Coun Jane Scullion (Lab, Luddenden Foot) told |Cabinet colleagues that Connect was a partner of the council and the properties would be “homes for life”, anticipating what people’s needs might be as they got older without them having to move.

“Connect intend to make them lifetime homes.

“Adaptions are there when they are built so as people get older the homes are already adapted,” she said.