Sale Of Housing Stock By Rochester Upon Medway City Council (1)

EDM number 671 in 1990-91, proposed by Brian Sedgemore on 27/03/1991.

That this House condemns Rochester upon Medway City Council for selling its housing stock to the Medway Housing Society in July 1990 for ú77 million, thereby defrauding the ratepayers of ú56 million; notes that the Medway Housing Society is a friendly society run by former officers of the council; notes that the council obtained a valuation from the prestigious firm of valuers, Savills, which valued the stock at ú133 million; notes that the Chief Executive of the Council, Mr R. I. Gregory, deliberately witheld this valuation from the Council and its committees; notes that the Leader of the Council hid the existence of this valuation from the councillors who questioned him about the sale; believes that the Chief Executive and the Leader of the Council were in breach of their fiduciary duty to the Council; believes that the sale may have been unlawful at the price at which it took place; calls on the Audit Commission, the Local Government Ombudsman and the Director of Public Prosecutions to examine the circumstances surrounding the sale both as regards maladministration and legality; and, in any event, calls on the Audit Commission to seek to surcharge the Chief Executive and Leader of the Council in the sum of ú56 million individually and jointly.

This motion has been signed by a total of 26 MPs.