Decision details

Before the Committee was a report by the Director for Place, copies of which had been circulated to all Members and a copy of which is attached to the signed copy of these minutes as Item 10.

Following negotiations with Homes England, in December 2023 Homes England had made an offer of £5.1m for the unconditional freehold sale for Teville Gate. The Homes England offer utilises their Brownfield Infrastructure and Land Fund - making Worthing the first recipient of this intervention in the South. Homes England anticipated delivering over 250 homes in a lower density, lower height development which places a significant emphasis on successful placemaking and delivery.

Homes England recognised the strategic significance of Teville Gate and had signalled its ambition to:

? drive regeneration and housing delivery to create high-quality homes and thriving places;

? work with partners to support them and enable the delivery of new homes and housing-led, mixed-use regeneration;

? deliver place making and regeneration of the area;

? intervene where the market has failed; and

? deliver mixed-tenure housing that Worthing needs.

Teville Gate was purchased by the Council for £7m in 2021 via prudential borrowing. Securing an immediate payment of £5.1m would deliver savings in interest payments of £850k over three years, plus retaining a budgeted £100k pa in parking income, in addition to any meanwhile-use returns. By comparison, a typical market transaction would be conditional and likely to be subject to planning permission, meaning any capital receipt would not be received for several years.

Decision

1.     That an unconditional freehold sale of Teville Gate to Homes England, and continue to work in partnership with Homes England to develop this critical site be approved

2.     That authority be delegated to the Assistant Director for Regeneration Development, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Regeneration, to negotiate and enter into the legal documentation required to effect legal completion of the sale of Teville Gate to Homes England.

3.     That authority be delegated to the Assistant Directors for Place and Economy, and Regenerative Development in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Regeneration, to seek and agree to a suitable meanwhile-use as a priority for the site, aligned to council objectives to utilise the site during the leaseback period.

Call-in

The call-in deadline for the decisions will be 5.00pm on 26 March 2024.