The Proposal
The Crown Estate owns the freeholds – the ‘bricks and mortar’ – of the residential properties at Cumberland Market, Millbank, Victoria Park and Lee Green. We also manage these properties.
We recently completed a review of some of our residential housing and the outcome is a proposal which could see the freehold ownership sold to a new owner, who would also take over the management of the properties.
There are two very important points to make about this proposal:
- Should this proposal proceed, the sale would be of the freehold and any new owner would manage the properties subject to existing tenancies. This includes the rental framework and policy that is currently in place. The proposal would, however, affect different tenants in different ways, depending on specific tenancy arrangements and who the new owner is.
- We would only consider selling the freeholds of the properties to a focused housing provider. This means that, were the proposal to go ahead, the organisation owning and managing the estate where you live would have expertise and experience in managing this type of housing.
The consultation is starting on 26 January and will run for eight weeks until 23 March 2010. During this time, there are various ways for residents of the affected estates to get involved. These are explained on the Getting Involved page:
Alongside this consultation, we are also conducting a marketing exercise. This is to assess interest from potential buyers. The outcome of this process, together with the outcome of the consultation, will help The Crown Estate decide whether or not to proceed with this proposal.
If during the consultation process there are any material developments which affect the proposal, or if we feel that further clarification is needed on any specific point, we will communicate them to you. We may also provide feedback during the consultation. For example, if a number of residents ask us similar questions, we may circulate answers to those questions to all residents, if we believe this would be helpful.
At the end of the consultation period, we will produce a ‘findings’ document which we will share with you. The Crown Estate will then consider the outcome of the consultation process and the marketing exercise before making a final decision as to whether to proceed with this proposal.
Sometime after the end of the consultation, we will inform you of any decisions taken and any next steps. We expect this to be within four to six weeks after the consultation period has finished.
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