Dudley Council plans to demolish and sell 3,000 homes

Councillors are being recommended to demolish around 2,500 homes which are too costly to repair and sell off 375 from its total housing stock of 21,820.

A report by housing chiefs says the council has 2,967 ‘red’ properties, which would ‘cost more to manage, maintain and invest in than they will generate in rent’.

It also argues 375 units properties are sold off on the open market to avoid the discount tenants receive if they buy their homes through Right to Buy, which can be as much as £50,000 for each property.

Councillor Laura Taylor, cabinet member for housing, said: “The cost of managing and maintaining our existing council homes is estimated to be more than £1.2 billion pounds over the next 30 years.

“We have properties which have traditionally not been popular and have proven very difficult to let.

“Our resources are simply not sufficient to maintain all our homes to the standard we would want, and it does not make economic sense to hold on to properties that we know are not popular, such as many of our high rise flats.

“In those cases, where there is low demand for them, it is sometimes better to dispose or demolish the properties and use the money to invest in maintaining and improving ones that people do want to live in.

“That being said, no decision has been made on these properties and as such demolition or disposal is only a consideration within the larger stock management programme and not a firm proposal at this stage.

"We are also committed to building more than 300 new affordable council homes over the next five years, to add to the 200 new ones we have already built since 2012.”

At present, Dudley council has 3,545 households on its waiting list for a council house.

Councillors will discuss the report at a meeting of the Place Scrutiny Committee tomorrow.

By George Makin, Local Democracy Reporter