Middlesbrough Council accused of selling asset 'well below' market value

A council has been accused of selling a building "well below market value" after new owners put it back on sale at three times its 2019 price.

Vancouver House in Middlesbrough was sold by the Labour authority in 2019 for £822,000. It is now on the market again for more than £2.5m.

Independent councillor Joan McTigue said it was an example "of assets being sold for peanuts" by the council.

Middlesbrough Council said the process had been "open and competitive".

Councillors discussed what should happen to Vancouver House in 2017.

Paperwork relating to an executive sub-committee meeting shows three options were considered at the time: reusing it for another purpose, retaining it for future use, or selling it.

The document said "no council operational requirement" for the building had been identified and a sale would "generate capital receipts and bring the building and land into a far more beneficial use in the future".

It also ordered the press and public should be excluded from the meeting at which the decision to sell was made, as there would be "disclosure of exempt information".

Mrs McTigue said the council "must be seen to be open and transparent, otherwise how can we hope to have the public trust".

"It's public assets we're dealing with - surely that should guarantee the public can at least attend and be a witness to the events," she said.

The council concluded in 2017 that it had no need for the building

The building was eventually sold in June 2019 for £822,375.

It is now on the market for £2.6m, having been reduced in price from £2.9m this week.

A council spokesman said: "The disposal of Vancouver House on the open market in 2019 was undertaken as part of an open and competitive process under the council's accommodation strategy, and fully in line with the council's asset disposal protocols.

"No further completed sale of the property has taken place."

Councillors have previously complained the authority has sold assets for less than they were believed to be worth.

Mrs McTigue said: "The sale of Vancouver House at a giveaway price should not surprise anyone, especially when they remember what took place under Labour councillors who were happy to sell off Acklam Hall, with 20 acres of prime land - now with executive housing built on it - for only £600,000, and the Tad Centre for less than half its value."