Salisbury home of poisoned Russian spy to be bought by Wiltshire Council
It will undergo some renovations before being put on the market
The home of Sergei Skripal, the former Russian spy who was poisoned in Salisbury in 2018, is to be bought by Wiltshire Council.
The local authority have agreed to purchase 47 Christie Miller Road to enable the house to be brought back into use.
Mr Skripal lived at the property with his daughter Yulia who both fell ill in March 2018.
They were poisoned by the nerve agent Novichok and it's believed the pair first came into contact with it on their front door handle.
Since then the address has been out of use with the property having its roof removed and a deep clean undertaken in January 2019.
Before it is put back onto the market, Wiltshire Council are going to do some major renovations.
It will then be offered as a shared ownership property, in line with the council's affordable housing policies, with a legal stipulation that it must be used as a residential property, that it may not be sub-let, and that nobody can trade on its history.
Cllr Philip Whitehead, Leader of Wiltshire Council, said:
"It will be good to see this house used as a home again.
Throughout this process, we have been in regular contact with the local residents, and after consulting with them we have agreed to refurbish the property and offer it for purchase under our shared ownership scheme, at an agreed market rate.
During the coming months, we will rebuild and refurbish the property to bring it back into use as a home, and to protect local residents, we will ensure that the property will not be used for anything other than a home."
Meanwhile, the Amesbury flat where Charlie Rowley and his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess were poisoned was demolised last year.
Work began last October to dismantle flats 9 and 11 on Muggleton Road.