Car Tycoon Sells £5M Land Once Meant for Social Housing
A Land Sale Controversy
A car sales tycoon has put land he bought for £800,000 and intended for social housing on the market for £5 million, after blaming council delays for the sale. Peter Waddell, founder of used car supermarket Big Motoring World, snapped up the disused plot in Barwick Road, Dover, with a 'cheeky bid' of £800,000 back in 2020.
The entrepreneur, who suffered abuse as a child and grew up in a Scottish care home, had planned to build a 120-home estate for people needing council homes on the former dairy site, and gained full planning permission earlier this year. But he says Dover district council has been 'dragging its heels' over an agreement to purchase the properties - so he has now put the land up for sale with an asking price more than six times the purchase price.
The 59-year-old said: "We have now waited two years for Dover District Council to approve buying the complex once the homes are completed. We expected that approval in October, then November and again this month, and every month sees development and materials costs rising and housing lists lengthening. But enough is enough. We need to move on, so I have put the land up for sale."
Documents reveal that the Dover district council's cabinet was set to decide at a meeting in October on 'approval to purchase 120 new homes as affordable housing at Barwick Road, Dover'.
Asked about Mr Waddell's comments and why no decision was made at the meeting, a spokesperson for the council said: "We have had discussions in this matter, but to date nothing has been agreed." They declined to comment further.
Mr Waddell said the authority seems to have 'spurned' his gesture. "The council needs to stop dragging its heels and do the deal if it wants it to go ahead, and, together, we can deliver much-needed housing, in line with the current government's 'build, build, build' policy," he added.
"As I said when the site plans were revealed, I know what it's like to be homeless. So, if I could do something to help, why wouldn't I, especially when I acquired this site for a keen price?"
Plans were lodged in 2022 for four blocks of flats and 81 houses on the seven-acre plot, with 120 homes in total. It was approved at the start of 2025, with a section 106 agreement pledging hundreds of thousands of pounds to public services.
Work started in the summer to clear the ground between Barwick Road and Poulton Close, with council papers saying all the homes should be built by April 2028. DDC had intended to let out 80 per cent of the properties at social rent and retain the rest for shared ownership.
In March, Mr Waddell said that he was not looking to cash in with swanky executive homes. "The council needs homes - there are so many people struggling," he said. "Covid caused panic in the property sector, so nobody was buying, but I saw the potential of this seven-acre plot, directly opposite my Big Offices site, and made a cheeky bid of less than £800,000 - it would have been worth £2 million or £3 million before the pandemic."
Mr Waddell, who grew up in a Scottish care home and is dyslexic and partially deaf, retains a 65 per cent holding in Big Motoring World, which employs 1,400 people in Kent. He previously said he has a £200 million 'war chest' earmarked to double his current Kent property portfolio.
