Why Harrogate Borough Council is spending £4.5m on more than fifty new homes

Senior councillors have approved the purchase of 52 homes currently being built in Pannal Ash to boost social rented and shared ownership housing stock.

A meeting of the council's cabinet heard there are almost 3,000 households currently on the district's housing waiting list - and more than 1,200 in Harrogate itself.

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Coun Graham Swift, deputy leader of the council, said the purchase of the homes would “alleviate some of the demand" and added the authority's housing stock has been “significantly” reduced due the government's Right to Buy scheme.

Sixteen of the homes at Whinney Lane in Pannal Ash will be sold under shared ownership by the council's housing company, Bracewell Homes, and the rest will be made available for social rent.

Documents say the council could recoup between £1.18m and £2.37m from the 16 shared ownership homes, and make a profit after at least 13 years.

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The properties will be purchased from developers Stonebridge Homes and are part of a 130-home plot which was granted planning permission last year.

The first of the homes are scheduled for completion in November, with the remainder phased over the following 18 months to two years.

By Jacob Webster, Local Democracy Reporter