It’s been bought to the attention of the Droitwich Labour Party that there were concerns from local residents that the premises of the old Ravenstone Care home was being used by asylum seekers and that they had no support services in place for them.
Today we spoke to the Wocestershire County Councillor for the area and the retiring Wychavon District Councillor, who spoke to the District Council and we’ve been advised as follows:
“On 21st November 2022, a Housing Officer, Fire Officer, and an Enforcement Officer visited the Ravenstone premises to establish the situation. It has been confirmed that 17 people live in the property as Property Guardians.
VPS Property Guardians are taking care of this property at the moment (details of them can be found online at https://www.vpsgroup.com/).
Following the site visit, the person in charge of the property from VPS was contacted by Wychavon District Council and they advised that the Ravenstone is currently in the process of being sold. Whilst they await the outcome of the sale, and in order to mitigate the very high security costs of this large site, they have been instructed by the Owner to put temporary Property Guardians in place.
VPS manage the process and they undertook a number of compliance and Health and Safety checks before admitting the Guardians into the existing residential accommodation. The temporary Property Guardian occupants are to help prevent squatters and anti-social behaviour, such as fly tipping and vandalism. It is also a better solution than having physical steel on the building which can be viewed as aesthetically unpleasing.
WDC have recently had a couple of their member organisations notify them that temporarily vacant properties have been subject to requests for change of use planning applications when their owners wish to secure them by installing Property Guardians.
The VPS have explained that they have similar properties such as Ravenstone which are vacant, awaiting redevelopment or funding proposals, and are frequently targeted by vandals, squatters or attempted metal or heritage thefts. Occupying them with Property Guardians helps to protect them and significantly reduces costly repairs or other security measures.
Guardians are not tenants but licensees and they sign license agreements (contracts) that enable the building to be vacated and recovered for development with 28 days’ notice to leave. In return for the short notice, Guardians pay a license fee that is substantially less than an equivalent private rent.
At a time of a cost-of-living crisis, the affordable accommodation that the Guardian Model provides, albeit on a temporary basis, is an increasingly sought-after option”.
We hope this addresses resident’s concerns and we will keep the situation under constant review.
If anyone has any concerns/questions or would like to raise any other issues, you can contact us on [email protected].
Your local Labour Party working hard for you.
Droitwich Labour Party
