By Jason Lewis, Local Democracy Reporter

The reason given for the latest delay to a protracted housing estate regeneration project has dumbfounded a senior opposition councillor.

Conservative group leader Cllr Peter Baillie said “you could not make it up’ when discussing the situation with Southampton City Council’s Townhill Park scheme.

The project, which has rumbled on for more than a decade, involves replacing old council housing stock with more than 600 homes.

A council report on major project slippages in 2024/25 said: “The preparation of sites for redevelopment has not progressed as quickly as anticipated due to the lack of available properties for tenant relocation.

“Consequently, the decommissioning process, including tenant decanting and leasehold buybacks, has faced significant delays.”

Speaking at full council on Wednesday, July 16, Cllr Baillie said: “It made me laugh.

“You have had it 13 years and you are now putting an argument through that it has slipped due to lack of available properties from the housing revenue account (HRA).

“You couldn’t make it up. Thirteen years to get this done and now you are saying there are not enough properties to be decanted to.

“That’s just gone on long enough. You cannot be using excuses now that you haven’t got properties to decant to.”

The regeneration scheme was one of dozens in the capital programme which had seen spending slip into the following financial year.

Across the general fund and HRA capital programmes £33.73million of investment had slipped.

Cabinet member for finance and resources Cllr Simon Letts said the situation was “severe” but added that steps had been taken which showed a 25 per cent improvement over the past quarter.

“We have seen some movement although it is not good enough yet, but we are moving in the right direction,” Cllr Letts said.

Cllr Baillie picked out other projects where slippage was “really disappointing”.

This include work on school buildings, children’s homes and housing improvements like new windows, doors, kitchens, bathrooms, boilers, fire safety, electric meters and sprinklers.

Cllr Baillie said he believed Cllr Letts had a grip on the situation and he looked forward seeing some evidence of this coming forward.

Liberal Democrat councillor Sam Chapman, who raised concerns about slippage 12 months ago, said delays led to projects becoming more expensive to deliver.

“I have some assurance that in the last quarter if we are starting to turn a corner,” Cllr Chapman said.

“I was given that assurance last year that we were going to get a grip on the capital budget, so it is happening I believe, but I don’t want to be stood here this time next year with more lines, more delays and more capital expenditure.”

Labour council leader Cllr Alex Winning said any slippage was a “huge frustration”, adding that he had first-hand experience of this from his former cabinet portfolio of children’s services and learning.