Housing Up to 180 council homes could be sold off

COUNCIL homes in Bristol will soon be sold off if repairs and refurbishment are considered to be too expensive. New plans agreed by Bristol City Council mean that old homes which are poorly insulated and in a bad condition would be sold instead of repaired.

- Alex SEABROOK

The sales are expected to raise millions of pounds which will go back into the council's housing budget, to be spent on either repairing other homes or building new ones. But council staff admitted that selling homes in the middle of a housing crisis "appears counterproductive".

More than 27,000 homes are owned by the council, and around 180 could be sold in the next five years. The plans were approved by the housing policy committee on Friday - although Labour voted against the decision, calling for more transparency over how homes are sold.

Green Councillor Barry Parsons, chair of the committee, said: