Bid to buy Fareham's Wates House for council tenants blocked – weeks after asylum seeker plans scrapped

Councillor David Hamilton’s (Lib Dem, Wallington and Downend) motion to buy the controversial Wates House was voted down at the borough’s full council meeting on April 17.

Opposition leader, Cllr Hamilton, in a bid to sort the council’s housing needs, said: “I stand here with one simple truth: too many people in Fareham are waiting far too long for a place to call home.”

“Wates House is a building of 27 one-and two-bedroom flats. That’s exactly the type of housing our residents are waiting for. It’s in a good, central location, right near the Civic Offices, close to transport and services.”

Housing portfolio holder Councillor Fred Birkett said the housing in Wallington Way was not suitable for those on the housing waiting list. He said the £7m price tag to purchase the building meant each flat would cost around £260,00 per flat.

He said a one-bed flat on Rightmove is estimated at a cost of £100,000 and a two-bed flat at £160,000 so the same number of flats would cost £2m less. The headline statistics of two bedroom homes needed were actually to house four person families. Added to which they were not in the right area and would not best serve Fareham residents.

He said the Lib Dems were being opportunistic and Wates House would not support anyone on the council’s high bands, urgent need for housing.

Councillor Gemma Furnivall (Lab, Fort Fareham) said she was disappointed because the Lib Dems’ motion was not just “bad value” but a “rip-off”. She said, it did not put residents first and Wates House did not provide the much needed disability adapted homes.

Executive leader of the council Councillor Steven Martin (Con, Park Gate) said: “The research undertaken by officers has shown that the properties do not represent value for money for the taxpayer because they could not be filled by the families on our waiting lists.”

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After the meeting Cllr Hamilton said: ”Three out of four households on our waiting list need exactly these kinds of homes. Many have been waiting more than 20 months.

“This was a chance to do something simple, affordable and compassionate: buy homes that are ready to be lived in, right now, for people who’ve already waited too long.”

Earlier this month plans for the Home Office to buy Wates House to house asylum seekers were dropped. Fareham’s MP Suella Braverman was part of a campaign along with petitions from Fareham’s residents which saw the Government drop its plans. At the same time, the MP urged Fareham Borough Council to consider leasing the Wates House to house local people.

The motion was voted down by 22 votes against, four in favour and one abstention.