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A West London council’s push to increase its social housing stock has hit a wall due to ballooning costs from contractors. Hillingdon Council had been pushing to rebuild its social rent housing stock through the “Right to Buy Back” scheme. This allows local authorities to increase affordable housing stock by repurchasing former council properties.
In Hillingdon, this initiative recently underwent an internal review which revealed unexpected financial costs tied to an external contractor. The council set an acquisition target of 80 properties for the 2025/26 financial year to counteract the loss of local homes.
Last year, approximately 50 properties were sold off to tenants under the national Right to Buy policy. The “Right to Buy Back” programme is backed by £7 million in funding, alongside additional grant support from the Mayor of London.
To help meet the 80-home-target, Hillingdon Council brought in Madison Brook, a contractor that worked alongside a council in-house team. Throughout the collaborative work, Madison Brook successfully delivered a "larger and faster pipeline of properties."
However, the contractor had produced repair and refurbishment costs which were noticeably higher than the council’s internal calculations. At a meeting in March, councillors voiced concerns that these refurbishment costs “had not been negotiated as effectively as anticipated”, raising concerns about overall value for money.
Cllr Martin Goddard said: “Certainly my hope from a distance was that we would be able to you know negotiate down the refurbishment cost on on Madison Brook and keep the pipeline going so to me it's a bit of a disappointment”
At the same meeting, a council officer later added: “Through the analysis of the repair costs, we did notice that there was a considerable difference between the two streams... negotiations [were] held to try and secure a discount... but the discount that we were offered... wasn't significant enough to make the difference.”
Council officers also noted that the actual time taken by Madison Brook to repair and refurbish the newly purchased properties was itself an issue. As a result, the council has decided to step away from the agreement.
The contract will either be reduced or brought to an end entirely in this financial year. The focus will now be on avoiding future overspends.
The council is analysing the contractor’s repair bills to help pivot towards a more streamlined in-house team. Despite this setback, the council remains committed to expanding its social housing stock by bringing in newly purchased homes that are up to modern energy standards.
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