Estate bought by Borders council 'not worth £9.6 million'

by EWAN LAMB

Scottish Borders Council, which purchased a country estate for £9.6 million following a string of private meetings and briefings, will have to sell on the 109 acres for at least £11 million just to break even, it has been claimed.

The decision to buy Lowood Estate, near Melrose, from the Hamilton family to accommodate over 300 new houses has sparked widespread criticism locally. The deal, which equates to £88,000 an acre, follows years of spending cuts by cash-strapped SBC whose leaders have often blamed the Scottish Government for their financial plight.

The council has failed to publish meaningful details concerning the transaction which has resulted in the estate being handed to an arms length company Tweedbank Lowood Ltd., wholly controlled by the local authority.

Although members of the Tory-led administration seem to have rubber-stamped the multi-million pounds purchase en bloc, it has now been revealed that the Opposition's nine-member SNP group were and are far from happy with the price paid and are dissatisfied with the way the deal has been done.

The Lowood purchase was fiercely attacked at a council meeting yesterday by Councillor Stuart Bell, leader of the SNP team.

He told councillors: "The separate Lowood Estate acquisition which we are undertaking by ourselves remains a tortured tale.  The £9.6 million outlay, plus expenses, plus cost of maintaining the land and assets, plus the cost of borrowing mean we’ll need to sell it all for over £11m just to break even.  Reports we have seen in private say there will also be significant infrastructure costs to develop the site. 

"I don’t believe this site is worth £9.6 million, when you go into the detail of the terms and conditions of the sale; and that – as we know – was the opinion of the District Valuer whose assessment with vacant possession (which we will not have) was much lower than 9.6m. Even when adjusted up for a “special assumption” she valued the land at a price lower than we are paying".

Councillor Bell described the deal as a speculative and risky expenditure of public money at a time when – quite apart from Brexit - there was shuddering uncertainty in markets. House prices and land values can down as well as up, he warned.

"We should not be spending public money on buying this estate at this time, for more than it is worth", he said. "Yes.it is a good place for housing – but SBC has the power of the planning authority
to dictate how this site is developed".

In what alternative opportunities could we invest £10m?, he asked. "This Council should invest enough in roads to significantly improve the Road Condition Index – But we cannot afford to do that. This Council should commit to 4 new High Schools in 10 years.  But you won’t make that commitment. I will not tell the electors in Peebles – as you will have to – that they cannot have a new High School within 10 years when you have tied up £10m for 10 or so years in Tweedbank. We can’t even cut the grass properly in our cemeteries but this Administration glibly spends £10m on buying a private estate. This is a decision I fear you may come to regret.”