Almost £1m extra Income Every Year? Why No Urgency?

You’d think that with the pressure on the finances Newham Council would be making every effort to increase its income, especially when it has a low-risk portfolio of 35 empty commercial properties.

Apparently not. After two and a half years there are still 35 properties empty and available. This equates to a vacancy rate of only 4%, that sounds good. We are uncertain from their responses whether there are properties vacant and unavailable.

The better news is that 13 of the 35 available for lease look likely to be let as there is some commercial interest in them. We will check in a few months’ time to see if any of this interest has been translated into income generating leases.

We are told that the income from the 13 potential lettings is in the region of half a million pounds. The income from the remainder has been assessed at a further £350,000. You would think that there might be a little more urgency in working to generate almost £1m pa in rents when your budget is going down the toilet. But then, what do we know?