Council Set to Increase Scarborough Housing Stock

Thursday, 13 March 2025 06:00

By Anttoni James Numminen, Local Democracy Reporter

North Yorkshire Council is set to buy 19 new build homes in Scarborough and Norton for social rented housing and accommodation for homeless households.

A proposal to spend more than £3.6m on purchasing 19 new build properties in Scarborough and Norton has been recommended for approval by North Yorkshire Council’s executive committee.

The plan is part of the authority’s strategy to deliver at least 500 new homes across the county by 2029.

Nine properties would be purchased in Scarborough and 10 would be purchased in Norton at an average cost of around £190,000 per home which, council bosses have been advised, is “good value for money”.

A report prepared for the executive committee’s meeting on Tuesday, March 18, notes that the average cost of developing a new build property is “around £200,000 – £210,000 for a two-bedroom house based on recent appraisals”.

Four of the properties in Scarborough would be for shared ownership and five would be social rented while in Norton, four of the homes would be social rented and six would be ‘move-on accommodation’ for homeless households.

There are “high housing needs in both Scarborough and Ryedale, which is where Norton is located”, with more than 4,500 households on North Yorkshire Homechoice requiring accommodation across both localities.

The council said it had been in negotiations with separate developers who are building new housing in both Scarborough and Norton to acquire suitable homes that can be managed through its Housing Revenue Account.

According to the report:

“The rents for the rented properties will be set at social rent.

“The rental income from the unsold share of the shared ownership properties is set at 2.75 per cent of the unsold share.

“The appraisal model is designed to ensure the rent income generated is sufficient to meet the assumed revenue costs of managing and maintaining those properties.”

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