The Sutton Guardian had an article this week about the local council allegedly trying to introduce Compulsory Purchase Orders on a load of houses bought under the right to buy in Carshalton. A bit of digging brings up quite an interesting story.
The local councillor, in an entry on her blog, has indicated that the council can pay no more than market rate for properties, but is prepared to negotiate and offer a like for like property (same number of bedrooms) in what is hoped will be a new development at the site.
The properties are worth less than the prevailing market rate as they are "Orlit" houses, made from precast, reinforced concrete. This deteriorates over time and all properties built in such a manner were declared defective under the Housing Defects Act 1984. As UK lenders won't allow a mortgage to be secured against them, their values are understandably low.
Orlit houses are not generally things of beauty, they look like this...
Many were built in the 1940s and 50s as they were quick and cheap to erect.
Most of the properties at this site in Green Wrythe Crescent are council owned and occupied by social housing tenants, but some were bought under the right to buy. The council can't simply refurbish it's own properties as this would be prohibitively expensive (around £90k per property).
Hopefully an amicable agreement can be reached. I'd say a replacement house that would allow a conventional mortgage to be secured against it would be a pretty good deal, even with the caveat of a preventing an immediate sale by the owners.
A difficult dilemma, which hopefully will be resolved without enforcing CPOs.
