The law says a council can lease land to its employees using a private contract. You need to know that this law is part of the Local Government Act 1974, which is about how local councils work. The part of the law that says this is called section 557, but it is no longer in force because it was repealed on 1 July 2003 by section 266 of the Local Government Act 2002, which you can find on the legislation website.