Council axes £70m spending from capital programme

Projects including a nursing home, energy network and Wards Corner have seen their funding cut, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Haringey Council is set to cut over £70million from its capital programme over the next five years.

Schemes including the Tottenham Hale and Wood Green Decentralised Energy Network (DEN), Osborne Grove Nursing Home, and Wards Corner have been removed from the council’s capital programme.

On Monday (20th) the council analysed the proposed changes at an overview and scrutiny committee.

Speaking at the meeting, Taryn Eves, the council’s director of finance, said: “We ideally don’t want to have schemes in the capital programme that are not sufficiently developed yet, where we’re budgeting for the borrowing cost. As we’ve heard tonight we’ve still got some work to do to know what that looks like.”

Many of the axed projects relied on council borrowing, which it now wants to scale back on as interest rates are “remaining high in the short-term”.

Osborne Grove Nursing Home, following its closure in 2018, was initially planned to be redeveloped to provide for complex care needs, and the halt to plans drew much opposition.

Jo Baty, the council’s interim director of operations, adults, health and communities, said: “The initial proposals for the programme of work would cost around £30m, and then that increased to £49.5m, an increase of 61%.

“After a detailed options appraisal the project was deemed to be not affordable for the council at that time and that was communicated to the co-production group attached just over a year ago.”

The council initially had a £45m investment programme for the nursing home which has now been cut. In the meantime the building is being used as homelessness accommodation.

Jo clarified that a nursing home was not something the council was looking to develop at the site any longer.

Commitee chair Matt White said: “This is a project that’s been on the table for six years. We must be able to formulate a project that generates a saving that covers the cost of the borrowing, how is that not possible?”

In response, cabinet member for finance Dana Carlin said: “Everything was thrown at it to try to make it a viable build, the problem with this is it’s nursing care, this is not adult social care in terms of care homes.”

She added: “Even if we managed to build, the cost was going to be so much higher to break even we wouldn’t have been able to compete.

“The whole provisional plan was to be able to sell some of the bed spaces to neighbouring boroughs but if the cost is coming up 30% higher than the cost of the private sector it’s not viable.”

With the decentralised energy network, which would generate electricity across the borough more efficiently, the council had planned to invest £67m over the next five years to develop.

However, the “cost of infrastructure” and “rise in energy costs” meant the project was “no longer viable” and instead the council was now looking to third parties to deliver a scheme.

Wards Corner had £11.6m of investments planned but again was deemed no longer financially viable and removed from the programme “until more detailed plans come forward”.

A community-led refurbishment of Seven Sisters Indoor Market has been in the works for several years and has council backing.

Committee member Alexandra Worrell asked how the council would now still stick to its ongoing responsibility to open the market in full and keep its commitment to the community.

Cllr Carlin said: “The fact that it’s been removed from the capital programme, which is what’s happening with many schemes, doesn’t mean they’re not going to go ahead.

“There’s a lot happening at Wards Corner, the temporary market is being developed and going ahead and should be open by the summer, plans are going ahead in terms of the permanent market, just with Transport for London.”

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