Durham negotiates April stock transfer date

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) offered councils the chance to cancel millions in debt attached to council homes if stock transfers could be completed by the end of the financial year on Tuesday.

But with Durham County Council set to miss the deadline, DCLG offered a £205m ‘repayable cash advance’ from its contingency fund to cover the ‘urgent expenditure’ associated with the transfer.

Parliamentary approval is now being sought to increase DCLG’s 2015/16 budget by £120m to cover the total £214m cost of the transfer. This has been described as a technical way of moving money between budgetary years and it is understood the council will not be put under any financial risk from the repayable advance.

The homes will now be sold to the new County Durham Housing Group in mid-April, which includes Dale & Valley Homes, Durham City Homes and East Durham Homes, formerly arms-length management organisations for the council.

Brandon Lewis, housing minister, said it was ‘great news for residents’ that the department was still working with Durham over the transfer.

Jonathan Jarvis, a partner at Devonshires Solicitors, said he did not think the forthcoming General Election would disrupt the transfer.

Inside Housing revealed the 31 March deadline was believed to be ‘unrealistic’ when the stock transfer prospectus was first published in November 2013.   

Salford completed a transfer of 8,500 homes on 24 March, while Gloucester transferred 4,800 earlier in this month.