The council has given the National Housing Bank a first charge over Manydown North, and will release its own security as land sells. Call-in ends 23 September.

Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council has granted the National Housing Bank a first ranking legal charge over the Manydown North development site. That is the land the borough council and Hampshire County Council bought the freehold of from the Manydown Company in October 2024.

In the same week it agreed something else. When parcels of that land are sold, the council will release its own security over them, one sale at a time, without a separate decision each time. Its own report says that will leave council money “unsecured in part”.

Two decisions published on 16 September do this. Neither was a key decision and neither went to Cabinet.

Decision one: the charge

The Director of Regeneration, Sarah Longthorpe, signed off the finalised National Housing Bank loan facility on 11 September. The decision covers roughly thirty separate legal documents. Two lines matter most:

  • the council, as a member of Manydown Garden Communities LLP, “grants a first ranking legal charge to the National Housing Bank Limited over the Development Site”
  • the council enters into B, C and D loan note legal mortgages and debentures, senior and junior intercreditor deeds and collateral warranties from every material contractor

The stated reason is short. The facility “will ensure that MDV LLP has appropriate financial facilities to plan for and deliver the infrastructure and services to deliver the first 3,520 homes on Manydown” (decision record, 11 September).

We reported in August that the loan was moving from Homes England to the National Housing Bank. This is the deal being signed. The amount is still not public: it sits in a confidential gateway report, exempt under paragraph 3 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

One thing we could check. The decision instructs officers “to complete all necessary Land Registry registrations and Companies House application”. As of 21 September, Companies House shows no charge registered in favour of the National Housing Bank against either Manydown Development Vehicle LLP or Manydown Garden Communities LLP. The five charges on the two registers were created in 2020 and 2024, and every one of them names the borough council and Hampshire County Council among those entitled. The new charge should appear there in the coming weeks.

Decision two: the council steps back from its own security

The Leader, Cllr Paul Harvey, approved a general delegated authority on 16 September. It lets the Director of Regeneration release the council’s B and C loan note security charges over parts of Manydown North whenever Manydown Garden Communities LLP approves a land, parcel or plot sale, without returning for a fresh decision.

The report explains what the two sets of notes are:

  • B loan notes: funding to Manydown Development Vehicle LLP “towards its operational budget”
  • C loan notes: “25% of the value of the land due to the council upon parcel, plot or other land transactions”

Both are currently secured by a legal mortgage over the site. That is what will be given up, parcel by parcel.

The council is open about the consequence. “There is an increase in risk because the council’s B and C Loan notes will be unsecured in part upon each parcel release as opposed to its current position of having the loan notes secured by way of legal mortgage,” the report says. Under risk management it repeats it: “The principal risk is that funds the council has loaned will become unsecured whereas they had been previously secured by the legal mortgage on the development site.”

There is a second point that is easy to miss. Normally a charge is released when the money comes back. Not here. “The key issue for the Council to note is that the sale proceeds do not initially come back to the council when its security charge is lifted,” the report says. The proceeds stay with the development company to fund infrastructure, or are paid to the council on a deferred basis as individual plots sell.

The safeguard offered is procedural: an officer decision report from the joint venture confirming the sale, reviewed by the council’s legal service, with the Monitoring Officer consulted on the risk of releasing security by mistake.

How much money is behind this

The report puts no figure on the B and C notes. The council’s draft accounts, published this month for the Audit and Accounts Committee on 28 September, do.

At 31 March 2026 the council’s balance sheet shows a loan receivable of £23.5M from Manydown Garden Communities LLP and £8.7M from Manydown Development Vehicle LLP, the latter including accrued interest. A year earlier those figures were £22.7M and £6.8M.

The group accounts note breaks the larger loan down at the joint venture’s own reporting date of 31 December 2025.

What Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council is owed by Manydown Garden Communities LLP Horizontal bar chart of the council's loan receivable from Manydown Garden Communities LLP at 31 December 2025, totalling 23.9 million pounds. C loan notes 14.9 million pounds, D loan notes 8.0 million pounds at face value, operational loan facility 1.0 million pounds. What the council is owed by Manydown Garden Communities LLP Loan receivable balance at 31 December 2025, the joint venture's reporting date. Total £23.9M. C loan notes £14.9M D loan notes £8.0M Operational facility £1.0M The C notes are repayable as land parcels are sold. It is the security behind these, and behind the separate B loan to Manydown Development Vehicle LLP, that the Leader has agreed to release. D loan notes shown at face value; the accounts carry them at a fair value of £7.2M. Source: Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, draft Statement of Accounts 2025/26, group accounts note. Graphic by Basingstoke Online
The C loan notes are the largest single item, and they are repaid only as parcels of Manydown North are sold.

The accounts describe the C notes as “repayable in line with the phased sale of land parcels”, with interest at a premium over SONIA that is added to the loan balance rather than paid across. The D notes are non-interest bearing and are redeemed over five years. The operational facility is due for repayment in 2029/30.

The accounts do not use the label “B loan notes”. They do show the council’s £8.7M loan to Manydown Development Vehicle LLP, which is the company the Leader’s report says the B notes fund.

The state of the joint venture

The same accounts give the first consolidated picture of Manydown Garden Communities LLP, which the council has now decided is large enough to require group accounts.

At 31 December 2025 the joint venture reported:

  • net assets of £41.3M, of which the two councils’ share is £20.6M
  • a loss of £5.0M for the year, the councils’ share being £2.5M
  • land inventory of £71.0M and cash of £0.1M
  • a loan liability of £29.7M owed to the development partner, Urban&Civic

The loss includes £1.8M of accrued interest on loans and £3.2M of spending by the LLP’s members. These are draft figures and the external auditor’s results report goes to the same committee on 28 September.

What it means for you

Nothing here changes your council tax, and no planning permission is altered. The practical points are these.

There is a deadline this week. The Leader’s decision on releasing security can be called in by councillors until Wednesday 23 September, and comes into force on 24 September if it is not. When we checked on 21 September the call-in count was zero. The decision record carries the current count.

The order of the queue has changed. The National Housing Bank now holds a first ranking charge over the site. The council’s own loan notes sit behind that, and will come off parcel by parcel as land is sold.

Where to look next. The Audit and Accounts Committee meets at 6.30pm on Monday 28 September in Committee Rooms 1 and 2 at the Deanes, and takes both the draft accounts and the external auditor’s report (agenda).

The borough’s wider development picture is on our planning news page, and the house prices page tracks what homes here actually sell for.

Sources