Decision ref
0079 2025/26
Decision date
05/03/2026
Portfolio
Adult Social Care and Health
Wards
Thatto Heath
Title
Authority to enter into a lease agreement with Torus 62 LTD for the transitional flat at Heathside
Summary
This report seeks authorisation for St Helens Council to enter into a lease agreement with Torus 62 Ltd for the Transitional apartment at Heathside. The proposed lease terms include a 15-year term, a base rent of £15,600 per annum subject to annual index linked rent increase, and an annual service charge of £8,004.57 covering utilities, maintenance, and management costs. The Council would fund Torus £354,068.55 (£234,000.00 Rent and £120,068.55 Service Charge) with inflation adjustments.
Purpose
This DED is to seek authorisation to enter into a lease agreement for the Transitional apartment with Torus taking into consideration the above terms.
Background
Heathside is a supported living service located at Carnarvon Street, Thatto Heath, St Helens. The service is comprised of seven tenanted apartments and one transitional apartment. These apartments will accommodate individuals with a learning disability and or autism. The Council will be the leaseholder for the transitional apartment. The apartments are designed to meet the requirements of Building the Right Support, Building the Right Home and Right Support, Right Care, Right Culture.
The service has been co-produced with NHS England and housing provider Torus via the NHSE PID (Project Initiation Document) bid process. Torus and Adult Social Care Commissioning worked in partnership to submit a successful PID in 2021 and Torus received £1.1milllion funding to repurpose a disused residential care home into a high specification supported living service. Torus have also invested an additional £1.8million into the scheme. The Council were not required to provide any capital investment for the development of this service.
The purpose of the scheme is to provide homes for people with a Learning Disability and/or Autism who require 24-hour support to live in the community, and to provide the Council with a transitional apartment for individuals who require assessment, or a short term stay whilst waiting for identified accommodation to be modified to meet their needs rather than remaining in a hospital setting. The focus of the PID was to provide community-based homes within St Helens enabling those with complex learning disabilities, and/or autism to access accommodation in borough. There is also a focus on repatriating service users placed in out of borough hospitals and residential settings by offering them the opportunity to live closer to their families and communities in line with the national Transforming Care Programme. This was fundamental to the success of the PID.
The service has two tiers of apartment specification, with three of the tenanted apartments and the transitional apartment having a higher, reduced ligature specification to enable people with a higher level of complexity to live in the wider community rather than a hospital setting. The scheme has been designed to benefit from advanced levels of innovative technology providing spacious, safe accommodation with emerging technology built in to maximise independence.
The service is configured to meet the bespoke needs of each person, meaning the least restrictive measures will be in place as people are supported to develop life skills. The use of technology to provide integrated anti-ligature alarms, telecare, door entry monitoring, access control and fire systems is unique to this scheme. Invisible laser door alarm technology enables discreet monitoring of the apartment access and egress meaning opportunities to reduce staffing within the apartment itself.
Via the Cabinet process the Contract for the Care and Support at Heathside was awarded to Creative Support following a tender exercise. The funding for this contract sis predominately within the pooled budget with NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Partnership. The revenue costs of the scheme will therefore be shared with the NHS. The funding for the core hours delivered across the seven tenanted apartments was provided through the realignment of previous funds supporting individuals that were placed both in and out of borough. The funding arrangement was approximately £186k for the LA and £368k for Health.
The Heathside service went live on 11/12/2023 following Creative Support winning the tender. As part of the service model. However Legal have identified that although a DED was completed in July 2024 for the authority of the funding, nothing was put in place for entering into a lease agreement with Torus 62 Ltd.
Conclusion
The conclusion is that the report seeks authorisation for St Helens Council to enter into a lease agreement with Torus 62 Ltd for the Transitional apartment at Heathside under the specified terms. This includes a 15-year lease term, a base rent of £15,600 per annum with annual index linked rent increase, and an annual service charge of £8,004.57 covering various maintenance and management costs. By entering into this lease, the Council agrees to fund Torus £354,068.55 (£234,000.00 Rent and £120,068.55 Service Charge) over 15 years, subject to inflation increases.
The lease supports the original co-produced model with NHS England and Torus to provide community-based supported living accommodation for individuals with learning disabilities and/or autism, enabling them to live in the community rather than hospital settings. The alternative—using the property as a standard tenancy—would significantly deviate from this model.
Therefore, the recommendation is to authorise the lease agreement to ensure the Council can provide the transitional accommodation as intended within the Transforming Care Programme framework.
Risk Implications
None
Measures to Redress Risk
None
Declarations Of Interest
None
Equality Impact Assessment
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More information
Please contact Rebecca Ranson on 01744 676789
