Newsbot Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 Work to modernise about 130 homes on a Douglas housing estate is expected to begin within the next few weeks. Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/...man/6241797.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wright Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 so that is £100,000 per house in improvements over 4 years. say a neutral return rate of infaltion is used of 3% for the money which will be borrowed and without allowing for it to be paid off or written off by recovery through rents will the rents be put up by £60 per week per house to reflect the money spent on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Tatlock Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 I think it would be cheaper to level the site, put everyone up in a luxury hotel for 6 months, employ a project manager and rebuild them. The cost of building a 3 bedroom home at the moment is around £50K to £60K. Someone needs their arse kicked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pragmatopian Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 so that is £100,000 per house in improvements over 4 years. say a neutral return rate of infaltion is used of 3% for the money which will be borrowed and without allowing for it to be paid off or written off by recovery through rents will the rents be put up by £60 per week per house to reflect the money spent on them. Bloody hell - I'd expect them to be able to build new houses for one hundred grand a piece! Will they be gold plating the pipes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alias Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 The cost of building a 3 bedroom home at the moment is around £50K to £60K. Not over here it's not, small cottage maybe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wright Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 The link says £12,000,000 on 130 houses for central heating, new bathrooms, new porches and new windows over 4 years. It doesn't sound like good value for money its 6,000 each for central haeting, should be half that. A new bathroom with bath shower loo and basin should be no more than £450, say £1,500 for a glazed enclosed porch and 8 windows at £150 each plus two doors at £250 each plus fitting. I reckon £10,000 per house, tops if that ios all they are doing. Even if they are re slating, re dashing and stripping all internal plaster and re plastering it can't be more than £25,000 per house. That is only £3.25 million. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juan Kerr Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 The link says £12,000,000 on 130 houses for central heating, new bathrooms, new porches and new windows over 4 years. It doesn't sound like good value for money its 6,000 each for central haeting, should be half that. A new bathroom with bath shower loo and basin should be no more than £450, say £1,500 for a glazed enclosed porch and 8 windows at £150 each plus two doors at £250 each plus fitting. I reckon £10,000 per house, tops if that ios all they are doing. Even if they are re slating, re dashing and stripping all internal plaster and re plastering it can't be more than £25,000 per house. That is only £3.25 million. I'm with you. They need to do up these houses as its terrible that on this freezing Island in this day and age people are living without central heating, but the price does seem to be taking the piss. I've tried to scan back through the press relating to lower Pulrose because I remember they decided to drop those houses because it would cost over £50,000 each to stick in new bathrooms, and heating so quite how spending £100,000 on improvements is good value for money this time around is beyond me. But them again - Douglas South has always been about council house votes keeping MHK's in and certain people might need to be thanked for last year :-) Keep them sweet, and your life's very easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lonan3 Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 will the rents be put up by £60 per week per house to reflect the money spent on them. As the Corporation has been receiving rents from these properties for more than 75 years - far in excess of the original investment or cost of repairs since - one would assume not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Tatlock Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 The cost of building a 3 bedroom home at the moment is around £50K to £60K. Not over here it's not, small cottage maybe. Don't forget they already own the land Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hboy Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 The cost of building a 3 bedroom home at the moment is around £50K to £60K. Not over here it's not, small cottage maybe. Don't forget they already own the land Dead right. If its costing £100,000 a house surely its cheaper in the long run to drop them. They own the land. Demolition costs would be relatively cheap. You could re-build on a budget of £100k. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matty Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 The link says £12,000,000 on 130 houses for central heating, new bathrooms, new porsches..... Fixed your post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Celt Posted January 8, 2007 Share Posted January 8, 2007 If it is going to cost £100,000 per house them someone needs their arses kicking big time and out of the job as well. I've been in quite a few houses up there and I would say most if not all are structually sound and most if not all the work needed is cosmetic. I would say £20,000 per house is more realistic. I presume the the cost is going on the Douglas Rates? If I lived in Douglas I'd be kicking up a stink. Oh, hold on, my buisiness is and does. I think I will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gladys Posted January 9, 2007 Share Posted January 9, 2007 Bloody hell, how much! I am a Douglas ratepayer and I shall be on the phone tomorrow. Fully support the modernisation of these houses, but what is being done and how have they managed to reach a price like that? Competitive tendering my arse! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Tatlock Posted January 9, 2007 Share Posted January 9, 2007 A couple of examples: Midlothian Council has just started construction (May 2006) on 1000 new council homes at a cost of £105million. That works out at £105K per house, and involves land purchase. Wandsworth Council have refurbished 520 homes at a cost of £35 million including new roofs, windows, modern central heating, double glazing and security cameras. This works out at £67K per house. (Do the 130 Corpy houses all need new roofs?) Suffolk Housing Society have just received a grant allocation of £3.25 million, which means a minimum of 170 homes at a total cost of £13.5 million can be built over the next two years. That works out at £79K per house, and involves land purchase. Sounds like the Corpy could do with twinning itself with some efficient councils. I do hope someone intends to audit them. _ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rallybug Posted January 9, 2007 Share Posted January 9, 2007 Just sent the following email to the Corporation, copied to David Cretney and Bill Malarkey Hello I have just read the article on the BBC News website with regards to the planned works for Upper Pulrose. If the figures are correct (£12,000,000 and 130 homes), then that is over £92,000 per home on refurbishments. As I assume the Corporation owns the land on which the houses are situated, is it not a false economy to spend this much money on refurbishment alone? Has the cost of demolition and construction of new homes been calculated? How long are the existing homes expected to stand before being re-developed like Lower Pulrose has been? From a 2005 BBC News report, the redevelopment of Lower Pulrose cost £29,000,000 for 274 homes, 5 shops and sheltered accommodation for elderly people. If we ignore the shops and sheltered accommodation, this averages out to £105,000 per home, but would obviously be a lot less than that per home once the shops and sheltered accommodation are put into the calculation. With regards to the comment by the Chair of the Committee that some people would be waiting up to 4 years for works to be completed on a new home, there are still un-finished houses in Lower Pulrose that could be utilised for this purpose whilst the Upper Pulrose re-development takes place. If these houses have been allocated to other Corporation tenants elsewhere, rather than Upper Pulrose tenants, then I would think that some sort of decision-making audit needs to take place as to priorities. As it currently stands, it does not appear to be value for money to a Douglas rate-payer like myself, if Upper Pulrose is due to be re-developed within the medium term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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