Housing association Flagship Group comes under fire from councillors for selling off homes in Newmarket to the highest bidder

With more than 2,600 families currently needing to be housed, Newmarket councillors are asking why social housing in the town is being flogged off to the highest bidder.

After information linked to the sale of two three-bedroom homes in Exning Road, belonging to the social housing provider the Flagship Group, was revealed by the Newmarket Journal to town councillors at a meeting on Monday, Cllr Rachel Hood, chairman of the authority’s development and planning committee, said: “We need to put a marker down that selling off social housing stock is ridiculous.”

One of the properties at 264 Exning Road, was sold yesterday at auction for £147,000 after 48 bids were received starting at £100,000. The semi-detached house had sealed unit double glazing and gas fired central heating but was described by Flagship as in need of further improvement, updating and possibly some repair.

Newmarket town and district councillor Kevin Yarrow, who has questioned sales of Flagship-owned properties in the past, said: “I am alarmed to learn that our social housing stock in Newmarket is to be further reduced at a time when there are thousands of families in desperate need of housing.

“There is not enough social housing stock for families in need because the housing associations continue to sell them at auction. Flagship will argue that they are inefficient homes beyond restoration,” said Cllr Yarrow.

He also questioned why both houses had an auction bid price starting at £100,000 when privately owned neighbouring properties had sold for in excess of £200,000.

“As has happened before here in Newmarket, social housing has been sold at auction and the homes reappear on the commercial market at unaffordable and grossly inflated rents. Clearly this is a continuing practice to sell desperately needed housing in Newmarket by Flagship. It needs to be challenged at every level in order to preserve our social housing register for our residents."

James Payne, Flagship Group’s director regeneration, said: “At Flagship, we are committed to our vision of solving the housing crisis by providing high-quality, energy-efficient homes that meet the needs of our tenants. Unfortunately, the two homes being sold at auction in Newmarket no longer meet these standards.

“These homes are some of our oldest, with low energy efficiency ratings. They are expensive to heat and would require significant and unviable levels of investment to refurbish to modern standards.

“We want to ensure our tenants live in homes that are not only comfortable but efficient and sustainable. To achieve this, Flagship takes a strategic approach to managing its homes. Most of the homes we sell have become empty for one reason or another, giving us an opportunity to assess their quality, suitability, and investment requirements.

“Selling older or less suitable properties allows us to reinvest in building new, replacement homes that better meet the needs of our communities. This is essential for supporting our tenants in the long term and helping to solve the housing crisis.”

But Cllr Yarrow countered: “Not so. The neighbouring properties to 264 have recently had external insulation cladding applied by Flagship, which suggests that 264 can be made an efficient home for a family in need.

“No 295 has also recently had external insulation cladding applied by Flagship. So why now say it is inefficient and is to be sold?”

A Flagship spokesman said: “Number 264 was approved for sale due to structural issues with the property and its non-traditional construction type, and so it wasn't included in the external wall insulation programme we had part-funded through the social housing decarbonisation fund.“

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