The former Bovey Tracey Hospital, a purpose-built two-story purpose-built cottage hospital constructed in 1931, has remained closed since 2017

Daniel Clark www.devonlive.com

A former Devon hospital which was controversially closed in 2017 is set to go up for auction. The former Bovey Tracey Hospital, a purpose-built two-story purpose-built cottage hospital constructed in 1931, has remained closed since 2017 due to the reconfiguration of NHS services in the South-West.

The property has been the subject of various development proposals in recent years. Initial plans submitted to build six self-build and custom houses were rejected in 2020. These plans were subsequently revised to propose four houses but were ultimately rejected upon appeal.

Teignbridge District Council has indicated that they would consider proposals for the conversion of the existing building into a residential dwelling/s, presenting a unique opportunity for potential buyers. The property also previously underwent a failed Asset of Community Value (ACV) attempt and the moratorium period expired in April 2017.

Now, Charles Darrow Auctions, a leading Devon-based auction house, have been instructed by the Torbay & South Devon NHS Foundation Trust to conduct a public auction for the former Bovey Tracey Hospital with a guide price of £350,000+. The auction is scheduled to take place on November 2, 2023.

The Former Bovey Tracey Hospital, situated on an overall site area of approximately 0.64 acres, includes a plot of land/garden to the road frontage of approximately 0.2 acres, making it an attractive proposition for various commercial uses.

The property’s gross internal floor area of approximately 9,000 sq. Ft. allows a great deal of flexibility for potential use as a hostel, guest house, holiday cottages, veterinary surgery, dental practice, activity/play centre, children’s day nursery, kennels, business centre, secure storage, and more, subject to planning permission. It is equally suitable for owner-occupiers, developers, or investors.

The property boasts a convenient location with a good-sized car park and easy access to the A382. It is strategically situated just 7 miles from Newton Abbot and 16 miles from Exeter, making it accessible to a wide range of potential businesses or residential uses. Additionally, it is located just outside the boundary of Dartmoor National Park, offering stunning moorland views from the first floor.

Paul Heather, director of Charles Darrow Auctions, said: “The sale presents an exceptional opportunity for prospective buyers to acquire a property with vast potential for redevelopment or other commercial uses.”

Hiding £400m from taxman – slap on wrist and extra fine he can easily afford.  Make a £1 error on your Universal Credit – benefits stopped.

Oh brave new world that has such people in it. – Owl

Commercial property bought by Torbay Council in far-flung places across the country are earning the council millions of pounds in rent, but have lost £37 million in value since they were bought.

Guy Henderson, local democracy reporter www.radioexe.co.uk

Over the past few years, the bay has bought a pasty factory in Cornwall, a cinema in Somerset and a warehouse for Amazon in Exeter as part of a large portfolio of property it acquired to make money to compensate for dwindling financial support from the government.

Critics at the time said it was a high-risk strategy and accused the council of ‘playing Monopoly’ with council taxpayers’ cash.

The practice was outlawed by Westminster early in 2020, preventing any new purchases, but Torbay’s faraway holdings – worth almost £175 million – continue to make money.

The portfolio spans the south and west of England and was started in 2017 as a so-called ‘debt for yield’ project using discounted loans to buy property and collect rents from them.

The council’s scrutiny committee has been given a report on how the portfolio is doing in a ‘volatile’ market hit by inflation and rising costs.

Income from rents in the last year topped £13.5 million, nearly £800,000 more than when the properties were first bought. However, a number of tenants’ leases expire in the coming years, and the council is prepared to use its reserves to offer companies incentives to stay.

When the properties were bought, the total value of the portfolio stood at £212 million, but changes in the market mean it is now worth much less – with £174.5 million the latest figure published.

Officers partly blame the drop on the pandemic, with more people working from home and fewer using offices. A slump in the retail market and global economic issues are also blamed.

There was a suggestion that the council might sell some of the properties, but cabinet member for finance Cllr Alan Tyerman (Con, Churston with Galmpton) told the meeting: “Offloading them at a time in which capital values have fallen doesn’t seem a very sensible thing to do.

“When they were purchased, the idea was that we might want to sell, but the changes in the regulations mean that if we sell, we can’t replace that revenue.”

Cllr Chris Lewis (Con, Preston) added: “These investments bring in millions of pounds a year. If we hadn’t bought them we would have had to cut services by millions.

“This has been a real benefit to the bay.”

And Cllr Darren Cowell (Independent, Shiphay) said: “Without that money plugging the hole left by the reduction in government grant, some of Torbay’s services would be in a dire state.”

The contents of the property portfolio currently include: Wren Park retail centre at Torquay; shopping centre run by Tesco at Ferndown, Dorset; Gadeon House office block near the M5 at Exeter, let to EDF Energy; Fugro House office block at Wallingford, Oxfordshire; distribution warehouse London Medway in Kent; new Travelodge hotel at Chippenham, Wiltshire; Twyver House office block, Gloucester, let to the government; Woodwater House, Exeter, offices let to solicitors Michelmores; The Range, Torquay; food factory let to Proper Cornish Ltd in Bodmin, Cornwall; industrial warehouse occupied by Crown Records at Marsh Barton, Exeter; the national distribution centre for Chef Direct at Didcot in Oxfordshire; Amazon warehouse near Exeter and Odeon Cinema, Taunton.
 

Developers are offering to pay buyers’ mortgages as they resist reducing the prices of their homes. 

By Madeleine Ross, www.telegraph.co.uk

One housebuilder, Fairview New Homes, is offering cash sums of up to £30,000 equivalent to a discount on mortgage rates of 2.5pc for two years. 

The developer says buyers can use the savings to cover the cost of buying a new car, having their groceries covered for up to two years or holidays.

This comes after the developer launched its “Buddy Up” scheme, which offers £2,000 for legal fees and advice and either a 5pc deposit boost and a £5,000 John Lewis voucher or a Stamp Duty grant and a £5,000 furniture pack for those buying with friends.  

Another firm, Stonebond, promises discounted mortgage rate of 3pc for two years, compared to rate of of around 5-6pc available at high-street lenders.

On a £500,000 property with a 25pc deposit, the developer says it will pay up to £16,875 to take a mortgage rate of 5.25pc down to 3pc. The incentive will be paid as an allowance when the sale is completed.

Hayfield Homes recently advertised a Tesla, worth £40,000 to £60,000, for the buyer of a £660,000 four-bedroom home at a development in Bromham, Bedfordshire.

Other incentives being launched by housebuilders include so-called “Rent to buy” schemes, in which a tenant pays rent to the developer for a set period which constitutes their deposit, before applying for a mortgage.

Large developer Barratt Developments has launched a pilot program which allows buyers to put down just a 2.5pc deposit upfront, before using six months’ rent to form the other half of their 5pc deposit.

Adrian MacDiarmid, head of mortgages at Barratt, said: “Instead of paying private rent that eats up all their savings, they [buyers] can put that money to good use as part of their deposit, all while they are enjoying living in their new home.”

The tricks of the trade to keep prices high

Emma Fildes, a buying agent in London, said developers were using all the tricks of the trade to keep prices high.

“It looks better land register-wise,” she said, adding that buyers must disclose any incentives they are offered to their mortgage brokers.

The agent said smaller companies were more likely to bring down their prices as offering more significant incentives, including carpeting and fittings, was more difficult for them.

She said: “The key to wearing them down is your position and being able to move at speed and incentivise them in that way that you got the money you can do this, and then chip accordingly.”

Buying agent Alex Mosley, of Perrygate in London, said buyers who are offered incentives should be aware that the property price might not offer a fair value.

“Always try to understand a new build’s premium against the second hand market before making an offer.”

New builds are often sold at a premium compared to second hand homes but the average agreed sales price of a new build dropped 9pc between March and July this year, according to market analysts TwentyCi.

The Government unveiled a housebuilding target of 300,000 new homes annually in its 2019 election manifesto.

In July the cross-party Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee said it was unlikely to hit this target.

But the committee conceded that the government might still hit its target of 1m new homes by the end of 2024.

Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings’s secret Covid WhatsApp messages revealed

Eye-opening messages sent between Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings about the government’s handling of the start of the pandemic have been released for the first time.

Archie Mitchell www.independent.co.uk

In a WhatsApp exchange between the former prime minister and his then chief of staff, released by the Covid inquiry, Mr Cummings described the Cabinet Office as “terrifyingly s***”, and said it had no proper plans in place for lockdowns.

The messages also revealed that Mr Cummings told his boss that some civil servants wanted to delay ordering people to stay at home as they “haven’t done the work and don’t work weekends“.

The shocking messages also reveal Mr Johnson thought it was “wrong” for the prime minister to meet Scotland’s leader Nicola Sturgeon and Wales’s first minister Mark Drakeford regularly during the pandemic.

Mr Drakeford had been frustrated by what he saw as a lack of meetings with Mr Johnson’s government, but the PM believed working closely with the heads of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland would leave the UK looking like a “mini-EU of four nations”.

“That is not, in my view, how devolution is supposed to work,” he said.

In his witness statement to the Covid inquiry, Mr Johnson added that he often left Michael Gove to chair four-nation Cobra meetings, partly because he was a “target of nationalist ire” and did not want to provoke the Scottish National Party (SNP).

Mr Johnson said: “It is optically wrong, in the first place, for the UK prime minister to hold regular meetings with other DA [devolved administration] first ministers, as though the UK were a kind of mini EU of four nations and we were meeting as a ‘council’ in a federal structure.

“That is not, in my view, how devolution is meant to work. More importantly, I am afraid I was conscious that I tended to be a particular target of nationalist ire. Rather than provoking the SNP, I wanted to mollify and gain consent. I believed Michael would do a good job.”

As well as claiming civil servants wanted to delay the government making a stay-at-home announcement, Mr Cummings said the then civil service chief Sir Mark Sedwill “hasn’t a scooby” what was happening.

Mr Cummings said: “Mark is out to lunch – hasn’t a scooby what’s going on and his own officials know he doesn’t. We must announce TODAY – not next week – ‘if feel ill with cold/flu stay home’.

“Some CABOFF want delay cos haven’t done the work and don’t work weekends. We must force the pace today. We are looking at 100-500 thousand deaths between optimistic/pessimistic scenarios. 1918 was 250k for comparison.”

In a message on the morning of 12 March 2020, the day Britain moved from a contain phase to a delay phase in the fight against Covid, Mr Cummings said: “We got big problems coming. CABOFF is terrifyingly s***, no plans, totally behind pace.”

He added that political advisors including Lee Cain and James Slack were having to “drive and direct” the response.

The comments on civil servants’ working patterns sparked a row, with the head of the FDA union for senior civil servants hitting back. Dave Penman said: “The only lazy thing here is Cummings’ tired old tropes, self-aggrandising as the only saviour of the country.

“Our evidence shows a quarter of senior civil servants work more than 16 hours unpaid every week and more than 80 per cent work an extra day unpaid each week.”