Ministers heap pressure on councils to consider asset sales

Ministers are piling the pressure on local authorities and other public bodies to consider selling off assets as a way of reducing cuts to frontline services.

The Department for Communities and Local Government has today published a ‘demo’ map showing more than 180,000 assets owned by almost 600 public bodies. The organisations that participated in the project included central government and 87 councils.

According to the government, public sector assets are worth an estimated £385bn – with councils owning almost two-thirds of them.

The DCLG also said that the government was committed to working with areas “to make savings through better property management”, estimating that some £35bn could be saved over a ten-year period.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles urged all public sector organisations, including councils, to publish registers of all buildings and land owned. He said that – in addition to helping identify savings – the lists could be used by local people alongside the Localism Bill's proposed community rights to protect “local treasures”. The Bill’s rights include the Right to Buy and the Right to Reclaim Land.

The map reveals a range of different types of asset, including farm and, cafes and restaurants, theatres, cinemas, hotels and an airport.

The DCLG has also published the results of the 11 council-led capital and assets pathfinders, which concluded that on average 20% savings could be made by rationalising public assets or co-locating local services based on customer needs.

Among the initiatives highlighted were three hubs being set up in districts in Leicestershire as part of attempts by councils and local public services to join up services and better co-ordinate asset use.

Hampshire meanwhile hopes to reduce operating size and costs by a least a third in Winchester and Basingstoke by developing a single asset decision making hub across the local public sector. This hub will be overseen by a joint management board of partners.

However, the government acknowledged that one of the biggest barriers to making savings through bringing multiple services under one roof was a lack of engagement from Whitehall departments that owned the properties concerned.

Pickles said: "We need to know, now more than ever, exactly what assets are publicly owned. The general public probably have no idea of the sheer scale and scope of property and land on the public sector's books. In many cases it goes way beyond traditional frontline services. I want the public sector to take a good hard look at what they own.”

The Communities Secretary claimed that by cataloguing each and every asset councils can help government find innovative new ways to utilise them, improve local services, keep council running costs down and save taxpayers' money.

He added: "This asset information also holds huge potential for local communities, offering an at a glance way to find that new meeting place or rescue the derelict tennis court round the corner."