Swindon Council's decision to offer a number of its commercial properties for sale has been challenged.
Members of the Conservative councillors say it was not taken properly and failed to recognise salient facts following proper procedures, in the opinion of Conservative councillors.
They have ‘called in’ the decision taken last month by the Labour cabinet, and it will be discussed this week at the council’s corporate overview & scrutiny committee.
The decision is to list for sale a number of the council’s commercial properties for which it received a rental income.
That list is private and confidential, as is the price of each property, but the council did say it hoped to make £21 million from the total sales.
If it makes that sum the council plans to use £11m paying down short-term loans, which would save £300,000 a year, and use the remaining £10m for capital projects.
But Councillors Gary Sumner, the group leader, Matty Courtliff, Matt Vallender and Nick Gardiner, have asked for the scrutiny committee to either confirm the original decision, refer it back to cabinet for reconsideration, or refer it to the full council.
Their submission says: “The decision report fails to set out the policy or strategic basis for selecting the premises that have been recommended for disposal and fails to provide details of alternative properties that might fall within the same criteria and thus should also be considered for disposal.
“The decision to dispose of the buildings in question does not place adequate weight on the finite nature of the proceeds of sale in terms of offsetting rental income, which will lead to an unjustified future revenue deficit, and has failed to consider all options available to maximise the commercial return of these disposals or the future financial and letting prospects should the buildings be retained for rental.
The submission says this is not the time to sell commercial properties: “ A recent market analysis – conducted in September 2023 – revealed that commercial property transactions were down by 67 per cent over the last six months compared to the six months previous.
“The decision report does not discuss the impact of this on either the proposed sale or continued rental options; nor does set out a business plan to support the proposed capital expenditure, and demonstrate a steady, long-term income from the proposed course of action, as the commercial assets do.”
The Corporate Overview & Scrutiny Committee will meet at 6pm on Thursday, October 3. Members of the public are entitled to attend.
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