One of the houses on The Lawn, Whittlesford, is up for sale (see pic) and this has caused some surprise as this house is one of a cluster that form part of the council-owned sheltered housing scheme in the village.The explanation is that South Cambs operates a scheme -as do many other local authorities - known as "Equity Share" for the elderly whereby people aged 60 or more who are homeowners or have sufficient capital can purchase a 75% share in a sheltered bungalow or flat.
If later on the equity shareowner wants to sell then they have to assign the lease to a qualifying person. The Council has first dibs in that it can nominate a purchaser from its housing register for the owner to assign the lease to. If the Council is unable to nominate someone then the owner has to find their own purchaser (hence the for sale sign). But the buyer is only buying the equity share, and not the freehold of the property, so this is not about houses going out from the council pool of sheltered accommodation. More details on the South Cambs website
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