Council ‘in profit’ from sale of Peterborough United stadium

Speaking to fellow members of the Joint Meeting of the Scrutiny Committee, leader of the council’s Liberal Democrat group Cllr Nick Sandford said: “There’s been a lot of speculation in the press about Posh’s intention to move from their current ground to a new stadium on the Embankment.

“In terms of the finances, the city council purchased the ground and it now appears that we are selling it back to the football club for a significantly smaller amount that we paid for it.

“But Peterborough United don’t want to play football on it, they want to flog it off to a housing developer.

“Presumably, then, we are supposed to provide them with a piece of land on the Embankment near to the new university development so Posh can build a new 17,500 all-seater stadium.

“I think that is a fantastic deal for the football club, but how is it a good deal for the council?”

Cabinet member for finance Cllr David Seaton replied: “Looking at the figures we actually made a profit on the sale of the Posh ground.

“I think at this stage speculating about any future move of the football club is fairly pointless.

“The reason the sale of the ground is on the disposal schedule is because we are selling it to Posh.

“What happens after that will clearly be up to Posh to put any proposals they might have forward to the council.”

Peter Carpenter, council corporate director for resources, added: “This sale has been a long-term process and we’re now at the point where we’re just finalising off the last bits before it goes through the current member decision-making notice.”

As previously revealed by the Peterborough Telegraph a deal over the stadium will be formally completed on March 31 - 12 months after the two parties had agreed a deal with Posh paying £5.265 million for the stadium, Allia Future Business Centre and 12 car parking spaces, with the council holding onto much of the surrounding land, including the London Road car park.

The council bought the stadium and land for £8.4 million from a property developer back in 2010. It said including the sale it will have netted taxpayers £12.3 million, with more to follow from council tax collections at the Vista carbon zero homes.

However, the local authority granted a 20 per cent discount (£830,000) to Posh on the sale of the assets in order to ‘recognise the economic benefit provided to the city by the football club’.

The contract also included a clause which means if the value of the land increases from a future development the council will share the uplift.

The deal is between the council and Peterborough United Properties Limited which has been set up by Posh co-owners Darragh MacAnthony, Stewart ‘Randy’ Thompson and Dr Jason Neale, who will own the stadium separately to the club.

Posh plan to move into a new 17,500 seater multi-purpose stadium at the Embankment in time for the 2023/24 season after the timetable was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.