Cabinet agrees to accept £9million bid for sale of council-owned land in Reform Road

The Royal Borough’s cabinet has agreed to accept a £9million bid for the sale of council-owned land in Reform Road.

At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Cllr Adam Bermange (Lib Dem, Boyn Hill) said the sale will ‘generate a significant capital receipt to support the council’s financial recovery strategy’.

Cllr Bermange said it will reduce borrowing and the cost ‘that would otherwise be incurred on servicing the debt’, which is estimated to be around £900,000 per year.

In May last year, the council’s cabinet approved a proposal to sell its assets in Reform Road which comprise of development land and office buildings let on long leases.

In October, a freehold sale of these ground leases to Tallyspace for £3.5m was completed.

Work has been on-going by the council’s professional advisors CBRE to try and sell the development land to ‘obtain optimal pricing’ considering the ‘volatile market conditions’ currently being faced.

According to the cabinet report, the indicative development proposal for the land is for logistics and warehousing space.

The process saw CBRE receive an offer of £9million in cash from Pembury Real Estate in partnership with Hines to buy the freehold of the development land.

Separately, a joint conditional offer of £3.5million in cash was received from Maidenhead Gurdwara and the Jubilee Community Church.

Cllr Adam Bermange said: “As with the organisations behind the commercial bid, the council also engaged with the community bid organisations to give them a fair opportunity to take us through the details of their proposal.

“I’m grateful that we had the opportunity to explore their proposals in more detail.”

Since their bid, the two community groups have suggested a further approach based on an emergency housing scheme being explored.

“Although the community group have suggested this could increase the bid, there’s no investors attached and any housing scheme would be conditional on planning, and it’s also assumed to be subject to contract and satisfactory inquiries,” Cllr Bermange said.

He added that under the Local Government Act 1972, the council has a duty, when disposing of its land, to ‘ensure best price reasonably obtainable is achieved’.

After considering all the offers received for the sale of the development land, Cllr Bermange said he proposed agreeing to sell to the partnership of Pembury Real Estate and Hines ‘as this offer represents the best consideration that can be reasonably obtained’.

Cllr Bermange added: “A sale to Pembury would also create a

regeneration opportunity, boosting local employment and economy, both through the construction phase and on an ongoing basis once operational.

“Whilst I recognise this proposed outcome will be disappointing for the community groups, I hope that in the future we are able to explore ideas together.

“I want to assure them at least that the door will always be open for those ongoing discussions.”

The site is currently occupied under leases by Cranston and Achieving for Children. Thames Hospice and Housing Solutions also have temporary parking licences.

The existing leases and temporary licences will be surrendered or terminated ‘to enable the sale to proceed’, Cllr Bermange said.

“Plans are currently being put in place to relocate services for public health and the youth offending team,” he added.

The proposal was agreed by cabinet.