Eden council bosses have explained why a company set up by the previous leadership has continued to operate despite a vote to close it down in 2021.
Eden District Council voted in February 2021 to close down a company which was set up by the previous leadership.
The company was designed to buy properties in major housing developments as a money spinner for the council.
But Heart of Cumbria Ltd has continued to operate, accepting grants from the council in June and September of that year.
Penrith town councillor Jonathan Davies, who represents the Putting Cumbria First political party, said: “Since the May elections in 2019, this administration has wanted to close the Heart of Cumbria down.
“We’ve got a massive shortage of rental properties in Eden.
“They realised they were wrong all along and there’s now need for the company and they just couldn’t see it.”
But Eden Council’s leader Virginia Taylor said that political opposition were looking for trouble.
The Liberal Democrat, who heads up a coalition of Labour, Greens, and Independent Alliance Group councillors, said: “There’s no trouble there at all. It’s being brought in-house so that the housing is being run by the council.”
The move to adopt the housing provider was designed to cut out unnecessary steps in the decision making.
Portfolio holder for economies and enterprise, Mary Robinson said: “A lot of the officer time spent on it, they were actually Eden District Council officers (as well) so it made sense to bring the the whole thing in house.
“What we wanted to do was simplify things. We don’t need to have two sets of employees.”
Cllr Taylor said that a local authority setting up a trading company was “not a bad idea in principle” but that it could be run more effectively with workers being paid by the direct source.
At a meeting on February 25, councillors heard that the plan was to close the company and put resources in place to take over any of its properties already built or given planning approval.
Heart of Cumbria Ltd had a contract with Persimmon for 81 properties in their Penrith Carleton Heights development.
It was revealed in November 2019 that £5 million of Eden Council’s cash had been spent on the company up to that point.
However, the council has instead decided to take over the business and its resources.
Cllr Robinson said: “Once local government reform comes along it’ll just transfer across as part of the day-to-day services of the council.”
The new unitary authority set to rule Eden, South Lakeland and Barrow-in-Furness from March 2023 will take on all assets of the three existing district councils.
