Council Leaders To Consider Property Purchases As Part Of Medical Centre Project

Rother District Council could be set to purchase two Bexhill doctors’ surgeries as part of plans to build a new medical centre in the town.

On Monday (January 6), Rother cabinet members are due to decide whether to move ahead with plans to purchase the freeholds of both the Old Town Surgery in De La Warr Road and the Little Common Surgery in Cooden Sea Road.

According to a report from council officers, the plans to purchase these properties come as part of a deal surrounding the council’s construction of a new medical centre in Brooklands Road.

Officers say the arrangement is required as the surgeries’ GP partners, who intend to relocate the Little Common Surgery to the as-yet-unbuilt medical centre, are unable to proceed until they are released from mortgages on their two existing properties.

To achieve this, Rother District Council intends to buy the properties and immediately lease them back to the GP partners.

The Little Common surgery would eventually relocate to the new medical centre in Brooklands Road, while the Old Town surgery would remain in place indefinitely (initially on a 25-year lease).

The report reads:

“Officers are mindful of the additional risks and complications of acquiring additional freeholds and new lease arrangements; especially in relation to Little Common Surgery where the lease-back to the GP partners will only be for the duration of construction of the new medical centre, after which the building will become vacant/ redundant for GP purposes.

“Equally, the project cannot proceed unless and until the GP partners are released from both mortgages so otherwise the project would be reliant on the GP partners finding alternative means to release themselves.”

The full deal would see the council purchase and lease-back both doctors surgeries, while also committing to both build the new Brooklands Road medical centre and then lease it to the NHS Sussex Integrated Care Board on pre-agreed terms.

Officers say this arrangement (which involves the individual agreements moving ahead simultaneously) would result in a financial return for the authority over the term of the leases.

However, officers also note how the Little Common purchase and lease-back would make a loss “in isolation” of the other elements of the deal.

Details of the sales are commercially confidential, but a report to cabinet notes how the purchase price of both properties would be “less than” the assessed market value.

The council secured planning permission to build the medical centre in June 2023. As part of its application, the council also secured permission to build three light industrial buildings on the same site, which were described at the time as being suitable for “flexible business uses”.

The report says the council has secured £5m of Levelling Up funding for the scheme since this planning permission was granted, but also determined the light industrial units to be “not commercially viable in their current form”.