The £46m housing plan behind Medway’s closed door

The £46m housing plan behind Medway’s closed door

The biggest item at Thursday’s Medway Council meeting was not adult social care, civility in politics, local government reorganisation, the Local Plan, petitions or polling stations.

It was a £45.95m addition to the council’s capital programme, allowing Medway to continue pursuing the acquisition of 791 social homes in the area from housing provider L&Q.

So, of course, the press and public were removed from the room for 45 minutes while councillors discussed it.

Councillors approved adding £45.95m to the capital programme, including associated fees, so the proposed acquisition can proceed if due diligence is completed and the council remains satisfied with the deal.

In plain English, officers now have the financial framework to keep the deal moving forward. The homes have not yet been bought. But the path toward buying them is now much clearer.

The proposed acquisition involves 791 social properties and related assets in Medway. The council papers continue to describe the seller only as an unnamed registered provider, even though the provider is L&Q. It's one of those lovely council situations where everyone knows the thing, but the thing must not be said too loudly in the official paperwork, in case the spell breaks.

The public version of the report argued the purchase would bring a large number of affordable homes under council control in one go. It said the deal could strengthen Medway’s Housing Revenue Account, increase the number of homes available to local tenants, and prevent the properties from passing to another buyer with different priorities.

Cllr Louwella Prenter said the housing team would increase in size to match the extra stock. Cllr Simon Curry said “good quality homes are essential to the health and wellbeing of our community.”

Then, because we clearly cannot be trusted with too much health and wellbeing, everyone else in the room was asked to leave.

The press and public were excluded while councillors debated the commercially sensitive details of the deal. We do not know exactly what was said during that section. One councillor later described the private discussion as “explosive,” which is useful only up to a point, given that by then the remaining members of the public had gone home, and three journalists were standing outside in the cold, looking at a door.

When the doors reopened, council leader Vince Maple summarised part of the administration’s argument. He said there was a risk that if Medway did not acquire the properties, another council could do so, potentially leading to social tenants from elsewhere being housed in Medway.

The council is not just presenting this as a housing acquisition. It is presenting it as a defensive move to keep a large block of social housing in Medway connected to Medway’s own housing needs.

The opposition did not accept that councillors had enough oversight at this stage.

A Conservative amendment, moved by Cllr Andrew Lawrence, would have deferred the £45.95m capital programme addition until councillors had received a further report setting out the full due diligence, stock condition survey, affordability position and impact on the Housing Revenue Account over the next 30 years.

There is a lot of council finance language in there, but the argument is simple enough. The Conservatives wanted more proof before the money was lined up. Labour wanted the capital programme approval in place so the process could continue.

The amendment was defeated behind closed doors. Once everyone was allowed back in, Conservative leader George Perfect said his group had proposed an amendment reflecting their concerns about the plan, but it had been voted down.

Cllr Prenter then suggested the council would get a better deal for the housing than the previous Conservative administration managed when it bought the Pentagon shopping centre. Cllr Perfect responded that “Cllr Prenter needs to calm down about the Pentagon.”

So after 45 minutes of private discussion on a £45.95m housing item, the public summary of the evening’s great financial debate had descended into a small argument about the Pentagon. Democracy really does give and give.

The final vote split with Labour and the Independent Group voting for the capital programme addition, and the Conservatives and Reform voting against. It passed by 32 votes to 18.

The deal now moves forward, subject to due diligence. Whether councillors will get another meaningful chance to stop it if that due diligence raises concerns is the obvious question. The administration would say safeguards remain in place. The opposition clearly believes that too much of the decision-making weight has already shifted to officers and private process.

Either way, the public view of the night's most significant item was limited to the bit before the door closed and the bit after it reopened.

The rest of the meeting offered a useful glimpse of what Medway’s full council meetings now look like under the new motion rules. There were only two motions, one from the Conservatives and one from Labour. Labour did not use its second available slot. The Independent Group and Reform had no route to bring forward their own motions.

The first motion came from Cllr Perfect, who raised concerns about the local health system and its impact on Medway Council’s adult social care responsibilities.

The Conservative motion pointed to leadership instability at Medway NHS Foundation Trust, financial pressure at Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board, and £12m pressure on adult social care in the council’s latest budget monitoring. Cllr Perfect criticised the leadership of Medway Hospital, cuts at the ICB, and what he described as a “toxic culture.” He said the system needed “bold action and delivery.”

Cllr Elizabeth Turpin tried to add some teeth to the motion, including a formal written response from the Department of Health and Social Care and a cross-party task group to review adult social care pressures. Cllr Perfect accepted the amendment. Cross-party unity bloomed beautifully for about seven seconds until Labour voted it down.

Labour then moved its own amendment through Cllr Teresa Murray. She argued that the situation was not as “apocalyptic” as the Conservative motion suggested, noting that concerns had been raised about the hospital but that new leadership should be given a chance.

The Labour version kept the commitment to write to the Health Secretary, but softened the tone. Cllr Dan McDonald said health should never be an issue for party politics, as he seconded his political party’s amendment to another political party’s motion.

Cllr Lawrence said he was “increasingly alarmed” by the “lack of external accountability” at Kent and Medway ICB. Cllr Robbie Lammas described the ICB as “not fit for purpose.” Cllr Murray also revealed that Health Secretary Wes Streeting is coming to Medway to open the new health centre in the Pentagon. Try to remain calm.

The Labour amendment passed unanimously. After the meeting, Medway Conservatives said they had raised “urgent concerns about healthcare in Medway.” Cllr Perfect said that “the NHS in Medway needs reform, not just more money, and this letter will hopefully start the conversation.”

The second motion, from Cllr Maple, focused on civility in public life and the legacy of Jo Cox. Cllr Maple said it is “never acceptable” to abuse elected members or council officers. He was confident the motion would receive unanimous support.

It did.

Cllr Maple described an incident from earlier in the day. He said that while the St George’s Day flag was being raised at Gun Wharf, a member of the public said, “I wish you were raising something for hanging councillors.”

That is a bleak snapshot of where local politics now sits.

Cllr Joanne Howcroft-Scott warned about “decent people being driven away from democracy.” She noted that “we can honour debate without attacking people.”

We then moved on to a meeting that included the usual volume of attacking people, including a councillor question from Cllr Turpin over whether elected members should “keep well out of” areas such as potholes. Cllr Alex Paterson called it a “dishonest attempt” and said the words quoted did not represent what he had said. Cllr Maple later said the thing councillors should stay out of is “selective using parts of a quote.”

Cllr Maple’s leader’s report ranged across local government reorganisation, the Local Plan, a meningitis outbreak response, the Medway Lottery, the Slovakian ambassador, allotments, and the £60m Pride in Place funding for Medway.

On local government reorganisation, he said he had confidence that the government would make the right decision and that Medway Council would not challenge it, whatever it is. Given the government is currently deciding what shape local government across Kent and Medway should take in the future, that is not a small line.

Cllr Perfect said he “nearly fell off his chair” when Cllr Maple said people had faith in the process, describing it as “a complete shambles.” He described the past year as “another year of chaos under the Medway Labour administration.”

Cllr George Crozer said the Local Plan was likely to be found unsound by inspectors. Cllr David Finch said both main parties were offering “more of the same,” with Conservatives wanting to write letters and Labour maxing out borrowing.

On the Local Plan, Cllr Michael Pearce asked whether new or materially amended documents not included in the Regulation 19 consultation would be subject to public consultation before examination hearings proceed. Cllr Maple said the inspectors’ response was normal and that the council would respond by the deadline, including on the consultation timeline.

There were also the usual procedural joys. Councillors agreed to changes to polling districts and polling places. Cllr Harinder Mahil said he would like to “speak about the Ballot Act of 1872,” but would not, because he knew when an early finish was on the cards.

A proposed change to the petition scheme, which would allow petitions from third-party websites such as Change.org to be accepted by the council, was delayed until the next meeting due to the council’s own procedural rules.

There was one public question, from Alan Wells of Chatham, asking whether Medway Council would commit to gradual divestment from companies linked to the international arms trade through the Kent Pension Fund. Cllr Maple said a new ethical subgroup may consider the issue in due course, but stopped short of making any commitment.

Later, a spider invaded the press desk during the annual overview and scrutiny report, which was probably the most dynamic intervention during that item.

But the image of the night was not the spider, or the frantic paper amendments being handed around as councillors rewrote motions in real time.

It was the closed wooden door.

Behind it, councillors spent 45 minutes discussing the proposed L&Q housing acquisition in private. Outside it, the public went home, and three journalists were left waiting in the cold for the official version.

By the end of the night, Medway Council had moved a £45.95m housing plan forward, softened a health motion into something everyone could vote for, unanimously agreed that public life should be more civil, and demonstrated that its meeting still had room for the oldest council trick in the book.

When things get interesting, close the door.

Council matters

Meetings next week:

• Tuesday: Licensing Hearing Panel will decide on an updated premises licence for Smiles Kitchen in Chatham and a bold application for a temporary events licence for a shop that was previously refused a premises licence.
• Thursday: Employment Matters Committee will discuss a domestic abuse workplace policy and family leave reforms.

New planning applications:

• Construction of a new play area on Rochester Esplanade to replace the existing one.
• Conversion of a shop to a church on Luton High Street.
• New HMO applications for Constitution Road in Chatham, Copenhagen Road and Marlborough Road in Gillingham, and Frindsbury Road in Strood.

In brief

🏨 A pensioner has spent six months living in a Strood Premier Inn after a car crashed into her bungalow.

🏪 Morrisons is set to close its Morrisons Daily store at Parkwood Green in Rainham.

🎸 Music publication Louder Than War has a glowing review for the first single from new Medway supergroup South Shore.

⚽ Dartford defeated Chatham Town 2-1 in the Kent Women's Cup final last night.

Property of the week

This period terrace in Frindsbury spans three floors, with a cellar, and is being sold chain-free, clearly pitched at buyers who see a lot of rooms and start doing the HMO maths. It is close enough to the station and town centre to make that tempting, subject to the usual planning hurdles, and the listing leans hard on the idea of an investment opportunity. There is an open house in early May and a batch of virtual staging images, which is a polite way of saying it could look very different with furniture and a change of intent. The cellar is large enough to be more than a token damp afterthought, and the overall vibe is space, flexibility and a layout that could either become a slightly eccentric big home or a very tidy business plan.

Check out this 5 bedroom terraced house for sale on Rightmove

5 bedroom terraced house for sale in Frindsbury Road, Frindsbury, Rochester, Kent, ME2 for £375,000. Marketed by Wards, Strood

Rightmove.co.uk

Footnotes

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