Reporting local life since 1854 40pMonday, January 16, 2012
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Whelan: ‘Stoke loving lifeon the road’: Back Page
SP ORT
ADAMS: ‘I CAN TURN IT AROUND’ BAC KPAG E
Man in courton GBH chargeA 43-YEAR-OLD man is due toappear before Stoke-on-TrentCrown Court today after aman was found with serioushead injuries.
Mark Wint, of CornwallisStreet, Stoke, is accused ofcausing grievous bodilyharm to 45-year-old DavidH e at h .
Wint appeared beforemagistrates on Saturday, andwas remanded in custodyuntil today.
Mr Heath was found onFriday in City Road, Fenton,near to the Newtown pub.
He was taken to theUniversity Hospital of NorthStaffordshire where he hasundergone surgery for hisinjuries, which magistrateswere told are life-threatening.
Shock overteacher deathTHE sudden death of a 54-year-old teacher has stunned ac o m m u n i t y.
Liz Wood, who taughtFrench and German atPainsley Catholic College inCheadle for nearly 30 years, isunderstood to have died in hersleep yesterday.
The mother-of-three, ofCharles Street, Cheadle, wouldhave been celebrating herbirthday today.
Her devastated husband Raylast night described her as his“soul mate” and said: “It hasbeen the darkest day of myl i f e. ”
Mrs Wood also taughtFrench to pupils at feederschools in Cheadle, includingSt Giles’ RC Primary School.See Page 3
Fears new scheme couldleave council short of cash
RIGHT TOBUY COSTSCIT Y £32mBY ALEX [email protected]
MORE than 1,300 councilhouses worth in excess of £87million have been sold in sixyears for just £55 million.
New figures show tenantshave bought 1,326 houses fromStoke-on-Trent City Councilsince 2005, with some homesbeing sold for just 30 per cent oftheir market value.
A total of 696 homes were soldwith the Government’s max-imum discount of £26,000.
The sales rack up a total lossof almost £32 million to tax-payers, but it means thousandsof tenants have been offered away on to the property ladder.
The figures have emerged asthe authority is consulting oncuts of £24 million, following£35.6 million of cuts in 2010/11.
The homes were sold underthe Government’s Right To Buyscheme, which offers tenantsthe chance to purchase theirhomes at a discount.
Government plans willallow councils to offerdiscounts of up to£50,000 on their prop-erties to open thescheme to thousandsmore tenants.
The average dis-count is 42 percent. Savingsi n cl u d e :
■ A council house valued at£80,000 and sold for £54,000, a32.5 per cent saving;■ A house valued by the councilat £71,000 but sold for £45,000, a36 per cent saving;■ A flat worth £19,000 sold totenants for just £5,700, a 70 percent saving.
Dorothy Meigh, of Townsend,b e l ow , bought her councilhouse for £11,500 in the 1990s.
She would have been paying£250-per-month in rent atpresent rates, but instead shehas already paid off the £100-per-month mortgage. The 76-year-old said: “We wouldn’t havebeen able to afford a mortgagewithout Right To Buy – unlesswe had a big win or something.
“If the Government is going tolet more people buy their housesit’s a good thing, as long asthey’re at the right price.”
A council surveyor assessesthe value of a property fol-lowing a Right To Buyapplication, and a discountis applied based on the
amount of time theyhave been a tenant.
Three quarters ofthe money raised
goes back to the
Government, while the councilreceives a 25 per cent cut.
From next year, the councilwill become responsible for pay-ing for house building andmaintenance using cash raisedfrom rent. Officers have warnedthat a huge take-up on right tobuy could leave a shortage ofcash for maintaining the city’s19,000 properties.
Val Bourne, the council’sassistant director of housingservices, said: “Right To Buychanges could affect our busi-ness plan and we’ll have to man-age that.”
The council is currentlybuilding 17 two-bedroomed bun-galows in Chell Heath at a cost of£884,000 – the first new councilhomes built in at least sixye a r s.
Councillor Gwen Hassall, cab-inet member for housing andneighbourhoods, said: “T hereare significant challenges in thehousing industry but, despitethis, delivering new housing is apriority in the city.”
What do you think? Email us [email protected]
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