Wirral Council plans to buy 38 new homes at Merse, Bromborough, for £11.25m for social rent, B&B families first. The 21 October decision is not yet out.
Wirral Council wants to buy 38 brand-new homes in Bromborough and let them at social rent. The homes are on Northstone’s Merse development, and the price is £11,253,491. Councillors on the Policy and Resources Committee will be asked to approve the deal on Wednesday 21 October.
Updated 25 October: the committee met on 21 October, but the council has not yet published the decision or the minutes. We will add the outcome when it does.
The homes would go first to families the council is now paying to house in bed and breakfast. The report says the first could be ready this month (Acquisition of Homes for Social Rent, report to Policy and Resources Committee).
What the council is buying
The 38 homes are part of Phase 1 of Merse. Magenta Living, the Wirral housing association, is already contracted to buy them from the developer, Northstone. Under the proposal, Magenta would sell them on to the council at the negotiated price and buy another 38 homes in Phase 2 instead.
- 20 homes are due to be handed over on a phased basis from mid-October to December 2026
- the other 18 are expected to be finished before March 2027
- all 38 are predicted to reach EPC band B, with a minimum SAP rating of 86
- each has solar panels and an air source heat pump
Northstone’s own page for Merse lists three- and four-bedroom house types, and marks social rent, affordable rent, shared ownership and rent to buy plots on its site plan (Merse, Northstone).
How it would be paid for
Homes England has already awarded £4.237m of grant for all 38 homes. The report says Homes England supports “in principle” moving that grant from Magenta to the council, and has done such transfers before.
That leaves the council to find £7,016,491. Most of it is already set aside:
- £5,315,712 is in the council’s capital programme already. The same committee approved it on 23 February 2026, to buy 30 homes for council housing
- £1,700,779 is new money to add, made up of ring-fenced Section 106 affordable housing payments from developers, capital receipts and external grant
That is the decision councillors are being asked for: adding the £1.7m to the programme, and letting the chief executive agree the final terms. The overall price works out at about £296,000 a home, before the grant.
Why the council wants them
The February money was meant to buy 30 homes one by one on the open market. The report says that would be slower. Buying 38 on one site in one transaction gets eight more homes and the Homes England grant, with new-build warranties and a single round of checks.
The bigger reason is the cost of emergency housing. The report says the homes would be allocated in this order:
- households living in bed and breakfast
- households in other temporary accommodation spread across the borough
- homeless households at risk of needing bed and breakfast
That would free up temporary places and cut the council’s bill. The report puts the possible saving on temporary accommodation and lost Housing Benefit subsidy at £260,000 to £1.1m. It says the real figure depends on who moves in. Rent would bring in more than £282,000 a year, before management costs.
Magenta Living would manage the homes, including repairs, under its existing contract with the council. The report says that contract would rise from a maximum of 75 properties to 108 until the council re-tenders it.
The catch: Right to Buy
The report flags one longer-term risk. Council tenants can apply to buy their home after three years, so some of these homes could be sold. It notes the 70 homes the council already owns or is buying carry the same risk. It points to the Government’s proposed reforms, including exempting newly built social housing from Right to Buy for 35 years, and calls the risk “longer-term rather than an immediate one”.
What it means for you
- If you are on the housing register: the report says these homes would go first to households in bed and breakfast, then other temporary accommodation, then homeless households at risk of B&B.
- If you live near Merse: the development is already being built, so this changes who owns and lets 38 of the homes, not what gets built.
- The vote was on Wednesday 21 October, at the Policy and Resources Committee. The recording is on the meeting page. Key decisions can be called in by councillors before they take effect.
- On council spending generally: our council tax bands page sets out what each band pays this year.
We will report the decision when it is published.
Have your say