Greenwich car parks up for sale via auction
Three car parks which Greenwich Council’s leadership recently agreed to sell are now up for auction.
Sites include Blackheath Standard, Plumstead High Street and Charlton Village – and guide prices are low. Charlton Village’s guide price is £230,000, Plumstead High Street £375,000 and Blackheath £500,000.
It’s not long since the Plumstead car park was the recipient of public money as part of Plumstead town centre’s upgrade. Much of the funds eventually went to consultants with scrapped plans to renovate the listed power generating building for a Greenwich business.
Remember the grand plans in 2018? None of this happened. The funding? Nowhere to be seen.
It’s the latest in a long line of public assets and land to be sold off for short term revenue to plug budget problems, but how long can that continue?
It’s also a short term fix – at best – that sacrifices long term revenue. We’ve seen numerous land sold off for many years and still budget problem continue unabated. Another recently agreed sale is the current Waterfront leisure centre. Woolwich is chock full of public land sold and developed, often slowly or still vacant.
Rather than the council develop land directly using knowledge gained via their building programme Greenwich Builds and through Meridian Homes it’s sell up and let the private sector benefit.
Long term boost
No option is being pursued again to build directly on these three sites and use revenue from market sales to improve services or build council housing, or let some potential homes at market rents for long term income to benefit council services.
Instead a private developer reaps the rewards and a sprinkling of “affordable” homes may arise. See the Waterfront car park next door.
For the council it’s a short term bonus but long term loss like so many areas nearby, including the adjacent Waterfront car park alongside Callis Yard and Riverside House over the road. All were sold for a short term injection of cash.
The council’s funding problems still continue unabated.
Future use
As for the car parks they’ll either continue with private management collecting revenue (with a likely cost hike) or be developed. Listings do state “OFFERED VACANT WITH DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL”.
If they’re to be developed they could’ve at least be utilised for the public good, but no. The council will continue paying to house 2,000 households in expensive private temporary accommodation at vast cost owing to a lack of council housing, which in turn leads to more service cuts and more land and asset sell-offs.
A vicious circle not broken by constant land sales. Exacerbated by them if anything. Another chance to build public housing to reduce reliance on private providers is gone. All very short term in approach and a result in large part due to decades of central government (in)action on housing.
Right to Buy
Ironically one cause of this year’s council budget overrun is needing to pay for additional staff and legal costs due to a flood of Right to Buy applications since Labour gave excessively warning of impending changes at the end of 2024. Hence a flood of applications.
That in turn led to a situation where this year England may see more council homes to Right to Buy than under any of the 14 years of Conservative rule. You don’t hear Labour crowing about that much. It’s also estimated that more council homes will be sold this year than built over the entire lifespan of this Parliament. Is that what Labour waited 14 years in opposition to achieve?
It’s a double blow of course. Not only are large numbers of public homes now being lost but higher costs to meet those sales further impact council finances. Which then leads to more public land in turn being sold instead of developed with council housing.
Did this government enter power to increase council house sales and put council’s under added financial stress, as that’s what they achieved within months of entering office?
In turn there’s ever more future more reliance on extremely expensive private housing by councils to meet legal obligations.
As for Right to Buy revenue, those flood of sales were under steep discount levels so won’t fund a like-for-like replacement programme at current construction costs.
And that’s the context in which further public plots are being sold off for a song – and costs to the council and its residents continue to rise.
The council will next be saying that independent shops are closing because there’s nowhere to park. These decisions I’m sorry, like you say, are short term knee jerk reactions to filling minute cracks in funding. After they’re sold for over 1mil combined (peanuts), do an FOI & see where the money was spent. It will be blown on other knee jerk absurd ideas like 20mph zones & making dual carriageways single lane etc. I would not be selling as they make money & they spend zero on maintaining them car parks cos they’re always dirty. I’d use them as little council hubs for staff to work out of as you won’t be able to move on the roads shortly due to the road shrinkage. Daft decisions that should be taken in consultation with the public. If you just want to sell for short term cash then put up some quick cheap flats & make millions (just like the new owners will). Madness personified
Depending on the method of sale, the buyer has already been lined up. This is almost par for the course with retail businesses at auction – often poorly advertised so that the preferred buyer can get it for a bargain. Expect to see overpriced flats here in short order – the money will likely go towards a few new communications officers.
@Charles Calthrop: ‘Expect to see overpriced flats here in short order …’. There will be an uproar if the buyer of the Old Dover Road car park sought planning permission to build residential units as the backs of houses run along the edge of the site. It won’t stop the developer from trying though, and Greenwich council might even look favourably on the plan.
The council said no one uses the car parks. What they mean is they never bother to send staff round to check if anyone buys a tickets as in Plumstead it’s never seen. There’s one feller who told me he’s parked there for years and never paid. I’ve never seen anyone check. It’s well known. Council don’t bother gaining revenue = “no use” = sell it off cheap.
yeah but blue badge olders ave the right to park in them car parks n we ave rights on ere.
Read through the link in “Much of the funds eventually ‘went to consultants’ “. Who are the consultants, and what are they consulting on? Seems there needs to be a blacklist of bad consultants.
Yes I agree Chris. The car park in Charlton Village and Old Dover Road Blackheath Royal Standard are well used. Plumstead High Car Park is well used whenever I have been passed.
Another waste of tax payers money on unless Consultatants.
Why the sale has been pulled out last minute?