Shropshire homes for migrants on hold!

It doesn’t help when Tory MP Mark Pritchard is posting GBNews headlines saying “Shabana Mahmood bans migrants from being housed in new builds” when Tory policy from Michael Gove in 2022/23 was to fund new-builds to house refugees from Afganistan and Ukraine. The then Tory-controlled Shropshire council was onboard with it and making a total of over £7 million available to build or acquire 30 properties.

www.shropshire.gov.uk/resettlement-refugees-and-asylum-seekers/news/local-authority-housing-fund/

Pritchard needs to be as transparent about what he knows as he is about asking the Home Office, Shropshire Council and SERCO to be.

The BBC reported:

In a statement, the Home Office said home secretary Shabana Mahmood had introduced "robust processes to ensure new-build sites like Stoke Heath can never be considered again". The development had been identified before the new guidance was brought in, it added.

Pritchard said:

We emphasised that these houses had been developed in response to local need, and that the Home Office's actions were depriving local people of the opportunity to buy them even before they had come on the market.

My point is was that "local need" part of the previous government’s policy to house refugees seeing as the start of the development in 2023 coincided exactly with that?

Agree Casdon.
Thanks for digging Graphite what a murky mess.

... because it might well be that the reason local housing associations showed no interest in the three S106 houses is because up to £750,000 of investment was commuted. If these house have a market value of £250,000 and the S106 discount is usually 20% then again the numbers are looking to be in the same ballpark.

Indeed, Casdon.

Maybe the ...

• allocation of just over £3.2m under the Local Authority Housing Fund (DLUHC)
• S.106 commuted sums investment up to £750k
• borrowing from the HRA of up to £3.2m (to match-fund the DLUHC grant funding)

... so over £7 million has all been spent and this is something different but I'd like to know if there is a connection.

Casdon

I fear your efforts will go unheard Graphite, migrant bashing seems more important than the truth about the back story of those houses unfortunately.

Why is it migrant bashing?

How would you feel if your children/grandchildren were living in Stoke Heath?

Can you not imagine the impact on such a small community?

Would you want all these undocumented men living near you?

How do you think the local people feel when they are on waiting lists for houses?

It’s wholly unsuitable for migrants.

I fear your efforts will go unheard Graphite, migrant bashing seems more important than the truth about the back story of those houses unfortunately.

It is going far too far to allow migrants to jump the queue when many of our own people are on waiting lists or trying to save a deposit for a home of their own.
The Government wonder why migrants want to come here. Do other countries roll out newly built homes to them before their own people? I very much doubt it.

I can see that the sports centre is close to Dutton Close.

However, the original planning permission granted in 2016 was never for social housing beyond a 12% three house provision from a total of 25.

There is a bigger story here beyond the obvious rage-baiting and lazy journalism.

What has been going on for three and a half years since December 2022 when the DLUHC made funds available to targeted councils, including Shropshire CC, to buy housing stock, build new homes, convert existing non-residential properties, and refurbish dilapidated housing or empty homes for accommodation for families from Afghanistan and Ukraine?

The update from Shropshire Council is dated April 2023 and the Dutton Close developer took over the project in July 2023.

We don’t know why it has taken so long for the houses to built and ready for occupation but projects do slip especially if developers have concurrent projects. This developer is currently marketing nine luxury homes in Eythorne, near Dover for prices starting at £775,000.

It’s just conjecture on my part but the timing and the sums involved suggests that this company, which is based in Kent and appears usually to concentrate on developments in Kent, may have bid to build the new homes as part of the DLUHC initiative. Why does a small Kent developer, just two directors, suddenly want to build houses in a rural location, 200 miles away?

If this development was for Afghan and Ukrainian families who arrived from 2021/2022 then they should no longer need the kind of support that newer families need. In that case a rural location would not present as much of a challenge.

MP Mark Pritchard said that the Home Office, Shropshire Council and SERCO were all asked to attend the public meeting but failed to send representatives. Maybe a call to the developers would elicit information.

I have asked Pritchard to say if this development was part of the DLUHC scheme or is a separate initiative.

I used to live a few miles from Stoke Heath, our daughter is also local.

The local opposition has been very strong, there is a large sports centre in the village “The Maurice Chandler” it’s used by many children, our GD represents the county in a couple of sports and trains there, it is used by a lot of schools.
There is also a primary school in the village.

Even Shabana Mahmood thinks this is a bad idea, new migrant housing is strictly barred from being established in proximity to sensitive community locations including primary schools.

Most labour is in agriculture or the huge Muller factory nearby.
It is highly unsuitable for migrants.

Since the Army base at Tern Hill closed Market Drayton has declined.

My daughter spoke to a single Mum who works for Muller about this, she is currently in private rented and said she would give her right arm for a chance to live in one of these houses.

Mark Pritchard MP says the Home Office has agreed to suspend the placement of asylum seekers in Dutton Close and to review the entire scheme.

A bit more digging.

This looks like it could be part of a scheme that was first launched in December 2022 with capital funding allocated by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (when Michael Gove was Minister) to acquire dwellings to provide accommodation for Afghan and Ukrainian refugees.

www.shropshire.gov.uk/resettlement-refugees-and-asylum-seekers/news/local-authority-housing-fund/

www.shropshire.gov.uk/committee-services/documents/s35061/Local%20Authority%20Housing%20Fund%20Round%202-19062023%201433.pdf

That was April 2023.

Note it says:

The funding is to buy 26 properties for guests who have come over on the Homes for Ukraine scheme, and four properties via the Afghan resettlement scheme (who are part of the Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) or the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (ARAP)) by the end of November 2023.It has been allocated to Shropshire Council to buy homes specifically for Ukrainian and Afghan households either homeless or at risk of homelessness.

The funding split is as follows:

• An allocation of just over £3.2m under the Local Authority Housing Fund
• S.106 commuted sums investment up to £750k
• Borrowing from the HRA of up to £3.2m (to match-fund the DLUHC grant funding)

It does say by the end of November 2023 so was that money spent in that time frame?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-64751397

It could be coincidence that the developers O’Shea took over this project in July 2023 from another developer who appears to have gone bust but that the planning documents show that the (rounded) market value of the 25 properties £6.6 million (with costs of £4.2 million)

pa.shropshire.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=TBFWWXTDGV900

Is this what this is all about? If so why was the MP in the dark about it or is this something else?

The reason you found no open-market listings for those 25 houses is that the developer entered into a contract to lease or sell the entire site en bloc to Serco, the private outsourcing giant that holds the Home Office contract for asylum accommodation in the Midlands.
​Under this framework, Serco secures properties to meet government targets. By dealing with Serco rather than 25 individual homebuyers.

www.stokeuponternparishcouncil.gov.uk/community/stoke-upon-tern-parish-council-10148/news/plans-for-asylum-seekers-at-dutton-close-90443?hl=en-GB#:~:text=Shropshire%20Council%20have%20told%20and,the%20properties%20are%20for%20families.

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/information_into_political_knowl?hl=en-GB

I wrote a number of posts on this thread, page 12 on …

www.gransnet.com/forums/news_and_politics/1359511-Govt-announces-Ukrainian-style-scheme-to-bring-thousands-more-migrants-to-UK?pg=12

… looking into the background of Dutton Close which is in a very rural location 10km from Market Drayton. The close originally comprised houses for military personnel stationed at RAF Tern Hill and their families. The site closed as an RAF station on 31 December 1976.

The land on which the new houses have been built is part brownfield and part greenfield. The brownfield site was a derelict building, once a social clubhouse known as The Club in planning documents. It looks at though it dates from the time of the original houses so one might assume it was once used by RAF families.

Planning permission was originally granted ten years ago in 2016 for 25 houses, one on the brownfield site, 16 on the greenfield site, with three designated social housing under S106. The S106 requirement was removed in March 2026 after local housing associations showed no interest in the three houses.

Work did not begin until 2022 but the original developers went bust. New developers took over in 2023. Quite why it has taken three to four years to build 25 houses is not known. Google Map images captured 15 months ago appear to show the houses in an advanced state of construction at least externally. More recently, in response to the outcry over who would live in the new houses, local residents have said the site is not complete, roads not laid and that there is an issue in the close with flooding.

What I have not been able to find is any evidence that the developers have ever offered the 22 houses for sale on the open market (now 25 after the S106 provision was removed) - which is odd.

Accounts to 30 April 2025 for O’Shea Brothers (Dutton Close) Ltd, which only covers the Dutton Close development, shows stock valued at £3 million. Stock is valued at the lower of cost and expected selling price less any costs of sale.

If, as had been reported, the houses are worth £250,000 and there are 25 similar houses that’s over £6 million in potential sales - (although that number looks high compared to recent sales of established houses in the close and would suggest a considerable new-build premium).

Why would a developer not want to sell them and potentially make a £3 million profit on the open market?

I’d be very interested to know what arrangement the developers have with the Home Office agency, to buy or lease these houses, when the agreement was entered into, who considered such a rural location suitable to house families seeking or granted asylum and where this leaves the developers now?

MP Mark Pritchard giving an update after the public meeting.

www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1030531516457459

Oreo

Apart from that, it was a bad idea anyway as in the middle of nowhere.

Yes Oreo. I saw some of the residents being interviewed and they said everybody has a car because it is essential with no buses. Crazy idea.

Apart from that, it was a bad idea anyway as in the middle of nowhere.