No rent paid for 5 years on Container Village

According to a local community blog published in Brixton, London, the local version of the “container village” hasn’t paid any rent to the Lambeth Council for 5 years.

“Pop Brixton” was used as a paradigm when the York Spark owners were trying to persuade the York Council and its planning committee that siting shipping containers in a conservation area was a good idea.

Like Brixton, the operators offered to rent the Piccadilly site from the Council and to share in the ventures profits.

An FOI response to the “Brixton Buzz“ has revealed that a similar deal there produced no income for the local authority.

Now, like in York, monthly rental payments are being sought by Lambeth Council.

A Freedom of Information request was submitted to the York Council on 25th August asking the authority to confirm that the terms of a new lease – agreed in February – have been fulfilled by the site occupiers.

Spark operated on a “tenancy at will” basis earlier in the summer following its closure during the health crisis. Its original lease expired on 1st July 2020

Queue to get into Spark last month

Still no profits at Spark

The Council has confirmed that the promised “profit share” on the Spark container village development on Piccadilly has still not materialised.

Spark York

Payments should have been made at the end of the last financial year.

Only one single “rent” payment of £13,333.33 has been received by the Council.

In their original pitch to the Council in 2016, the operators promised a share of the profits on the project which were expected to more than cover the £40,000 costs of the Council providing mains services to the site.

No explanation for the failure to make a payment has been published nor is there any item on the Council forward decision-making programme which would suggest when an explanation may be forthcoming.

It is estimated that, had the site simply been used for car parking, the Council would have received around £200,000 in income over the last 3 years.

The containers are due to be removed in June 2020 although the Council has been very slow to market the availability of the site for permanent redevelopment.

There have been ongoing problems on the site with several planning conditions not being observed.

Over £4000 in Business Rate payments are also owed to the Council.

Business rates at Spark FOI Reef IGF/13909

NB. Under EU regulations, which are still expected to apply after 31st January 2020, government bodies are specifically prohibited from subsidising private companies.