Disposal of Council Land

The request was partially successful.

Dear Sunderland City Council,

Can you provide me with a complete list of all public land / property sold or disposed of by Sunderland Council to any private companies, organisations and private individuals since May 2010 until the present day? The details should include all land sold, regardless of size.

In each instance, can you provide details of the location, size, and the price that each piece of land / property was sold for?

Can you also confirm the name of the company, organisation or individual which purchased these pieces of land / property.

Can you confirm which Council Department was responsible for setting the valuation of the land and property? Can you confirm if the decision regarding valuation was taken by a single individual in a Department; for example, the Director of that Department?

Please provide details of all land / property that Sunderland City Council is currently offering for sale.

Yours faithfully,

Mikas Shen

Solicitor - Freedom of Information, Sunderland City Council

Re: Your request for information concerning:

Disposal of Council Land

The Council aims to provide available information promptly and in any event within 20 working days, unless, exceptionally, there is a need to consider whether the information is exempt from disclosure.

I will contact you again soon in connection with your request.

Please quote the reference below if you contact the Council regarding this request.

Customer Request Number: FOI_2398

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OCEFOI, Sunderland City Council

3 Attachments

Dear Mikas Shen,

 

I refer to your recent request for information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000. I can confirm that the Council does hold this
information, as detailed below.

 

Can you provide me with a complete list of all public land / property sold
or disposed of by Sunderland Council to any private companies,
organisations and private individuals since May 2010 until the present
day? The details should include all land sold, regardless of size.

In each instance, can you provide details of the location, size, and the
price that each piece of land / property was sold for?

Can you also confirm the name of the company, organisation or individual
which purchased these pieces of land / property.

Can you confirm which Council Department was responsible for setting the
valuation of the land and property? Can you confirm if the decision
regarding valuation was taken by a single individual in a Department; for
example, the Director of that Department?

Please provide details of all land / property that Sunderland City Council
is currently offering for sale.

Please find attached a spreadsheet containing the location, sale price and
name of the purchaser for Council land/property sold since 2011.

 

With regards to land/property sold in 2010, this information is not
readily accessible and would require a significant manual exercise to go
through each deed packet to extract the relevant details. The time
required to undertake this exercise would exceed the 18 hour fee limit,
this element of your request is therefore refused under Section 12
(Appropriate Limit and Fees) of the Freedom of Information Act.

 

With regard to the size of the land/property, although the Council does
hold some of this information, it would require a significant manual
exercise to be undertaken to extract the information you have requested
which would exceed the fees limit, therefore this element of your request
is refused under Section 12 (Appropriate Limit and Fees) of the Freedom of
Information Act.

 

Please note that the properties sold to Siglion were done so as part of a
bulk transfer of the entire portfolio as part of the establishment of
Siglion. The individual values attributed to each property as part of this
portfolio sale are confidential and commercially sensitive information and
its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial
interests of the owner, Siglion Investments LLP in its future management
and dealings with the portfolio (Section 43(2) of the 2000 Act). Therefore
it is exempt information. The public interest in maintaining this
exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing this information
given the potential prejudice that would arise to Siglion Investments LLP
through disclosure and taking into account that the total transfer for the
entire portfolio has already been published.

 

Sale prices are determined through a variety of ways including tender or
private treaty. The Council undertakes periodic valuations of its land and
property assets for accounting purposes. These valuations have been
carried out by the Council’s internal valuers. The valuations are signed
off by one of two senior property managers or the head of property. Where
appropriate valuations are undertaken by external valuers.

 

The Council is currently offering for sale Penshaw House and development
land adjacent to Penshaw House, Penshaw.

 

This information has been provided in response to a Freedom of Information
request and this must be acknowledged in any subsequent use of the
information. In addition, the authority must be notified of any proposed
re-use of this information for commercial or other purposes.

 

I hope this is satisfactory. If, however, you are dissatisfied with our
response to your request for information, you can ask for the decision to
be reviewed in reply to this letter, however any request for review must
be submitted within 40 days of the date of this freedom of information
response. The review will be removed from the Directorate and coordinated
by the Council’s team of Solicitors. A request for review should be
directed, by email to [1][Sunderland City Council request email] by post or
by hand addressed to Business Support, Sunderland City Council, Civic
Centre, Burdon Road, Sunderland, SR2 7DN.

 

If this fails to resolve your concerns, then you have the right to apply
to the Information Commissioner for a decision.

 

Kind Regards

Angela

 

 

Angela Miller

Compliance Officer

City Development Directorate

Sunderland City Council

Tel: (0191) 561 7567

Email: [2][email address]

 

[3]oce20902 Supporting Equality Logo Colour

 

[4]www.sunderland.gov.uk

 

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