Cornovii says it will set example to private landlords

The housing company owned by Shropshire Council has said it wants to “set an example” to private landlords in the county as it looks to expand into the sector.

Cornovii Developments Ltd was launched last year with a focus on providing affordable homes, both for rent through a housing association and for sale as shared ownership.

Other properties will be sold on the open market, and the company has now revealed ambitions to bolster the county’s private rental offer too.

Shropshire Council’s assistant director for homes and communities, Jane Trethewey, and Cornovii’s managing director, Harpreet Rayet, set out their plans at a meeting of the council’s housing supervisory board on Thursday.

Ms Trethewey said: “This is an opportunity, if Cornovii is able to move into the private rented sector zone of work, that they can show a really good example of hoe to do this well, with high quality management of the properties giving people good security of tenure.

“It’s quite an exciting opportunity for us to be able to set a challenge to other private sector landlords out there as to how to do this extremely well.”

A report by Ms Trethewey to the committee said a consultancy firm was to be tasked with establishing the level of unmet demand for rental properties and advising the company on where it could help plug any gaps.

Councillor Heather Kidd said: “I think it could be very good for competition with the private rented sector, if we are providing high quality.

“How would we deal with the tenancies? Buy to let landlords can have significant issues with tenancies and people in properties.

“I would hope that anything the council was involved in would have a robust scheme of making sure we could deal with any anti-social behaviour, because that happens regardless of how much rent people are paying.”

Mr Rayet said tenancies would be managed by a third party. He said: “I think it’s a great opportunity for Cornovii and part of the reason we are commissioning this study is to help us with the understanding the type of margins, the type of properties we should be building and where we should be building them.

“It will also give us some advice around some of the internal processes and systems we need to put in place which ensures that we manage properties in the most appropriate way, while also factoring in the quality and sizes of properties as well.

“We would look to work with a specialist private rented consultancy who would manage the properties on our behalf. We would look to tender that and make sure they have got experience of working with other local authorities who have recently set up a private rented sector arm.”

Councillor Pauline Dee asked whether it was possible to give local people priority when it comes to letting the properties.

Ms Trethewey said the homes would not be allocated in the same way council or housing association properties are, but added that the company could choose to only advertise houses locally at first.

Mr Rayet added: “We would obviously have to take the appropriate advice but I think it’s something the Cornovii board would be supportive of because it’s in line with our original remit.”

Construction is set to begin in the new year on the company’s first development of 33 homes on the site of the former Crowmoor House care home in Monkmoor, Shrewsbury, with the bulldozers expected to start clearing the site later this month.

Planning applications have also been submitted for its next two schemes at Ellesmere Wharf and Overton Road, Ifton Heath.

The company aims to build around 1,000 homes across the county over the next five years.