This looks to be a very dodgy local story emerging down in Sutton: the LibDem council there has given a £1 million discount to a company of which Carshalton MP Tom Brake is a trustee. Ecolocal put in a successful £600,000 bid to take over the Lodge building, despite the council’s own valuations estimating it to be worth £1.5-1.7 million. According to the local paper, Brake is a director of the firm, which plans to redevelop the site by building nine flats. The Tories smell a rat, with Tory councillor Neil Garratt blasting:

“With the involvement of Tom Brake as a director and trustee of Ecolocal there was bound to be a question mark over any deal where a large public building is sold off £1 million below market value. In those circumstances I would expect an overwhelming desire for transparency to show the public that the Lodge is not being sold off on the cheap.”

This stinks…