Cornwall Council has agreed the sale of eleven Grade II listed properties for just one pound.
Three Seas Community Land Trust has purchased the coastguard flats in Looe, Cornwall on the proviso that, once refurbished, they will provide affordable homes to local residents. The trust will use grant funding available from Homes England to carry out a one million pound refurbishment of the properties.
The council approved the sale to prevent the properties from being sold as second homes or holiday lets, and to avoid the high maintenance costs of the buildings in their present condition. The flats are currently valued at around £640,000 but have been declared surplus to the council’s needs.
Cornwall Housing assessed the refurbishment in 2021 and found the likely costs to be “financially unviable”.
The Looe coastguard flats were once a terrace of four houses and now comprise eleven small one-bed flats. The property is situated on North Road and (appropriately) overlooks the harbour. Most of the properties have been empty and the cost of repairing and maintaining them has been prohibitive.
The newly formed Looe Community Land Trust has been supported by the local community who are in strongly in favour of the plans to buy and refurbish the flats, then let them at low rents to local people.
As is the case in many coastal hotspots around the county and elsewhere across the UK, there is a severe lack of affordable housing in Looe.
Cornwall Council councillor, David Harris, highlighted the importance of retaining affordable housing provision in Looe. He said an open market sale would have been likely to result in a higher requirement for temporary accommodation in the town. He added: “A community-led redevelopment scheme would ensure the flats would still be used for affordable housing provision.”
Councillor Ollie Monk added that the deal “keeps affordable housing right in the heart of the Looe community. Any affordable housing is now being built three or four miles away such is the shortage of land available in the centre of Looe.”