BCP Council 'immoral' beach hut sale halted by minister

One councillor compared the funding scheme to a "cunning plan" devised by inept Blackadder character Baldrick

A council plan to set up a commercial company so it can sell beach huts to itself to raise £54m has been halted by the Secretary of State.

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council revealed the strategy in its latest medium-term financial plan.

But after discussions with new Communities Secretary Greg Clark, the council said it will now borrow the money from the government instead.

BCP Council leader Drew Mellor said the new plan would save £50m a year.

The abandoned strategy had involved the authority launching a "special purpose vehicle" company, owned by the Conservative-led council, which would then buy the 3,600 huts at market value using loans from third-party lenders.

But Mr Clark said he was unhappy some councils were attempting to use a loophole to do "dodgy deals" and would be writing to all councils to close that loophole.

A statement from the council said it was "disappointed that the rules are being changed... despite this being agreed at the highest level".

A spokesperson said: "We are now encouraged that this new offer to fund our ambitious plans without having to resort to complicated methods will achieve the result we always wanted."

Mr Mellor said: "We made a point that we shouldn't have to do complicated transactions.

"[Greg Clark] has now committed to us being able to borrow cleanly to fund our transformation, delivering £50m a year of savings to council tax payers."

Referring to the fundraising plan, he said: "It's not been trashed. We've won the right to borrow traditionally which we weren't able to do before."

Opposition councillors previously criticised the sale.

Liberal Democrat Mike Cox described it as an "immoral Gordon Gekko, reverse equity release scheme", while his party colleague Marion Le Poidevin compared it to a "cunning plan" devised by inept Blackadder character Baldrick.