Council raises more than £15m from property sales

A council has disposed of seven properties to raise millions of pounds and avoid potential future losses.

The sites released by Southampton City Council in the last year include a student accommodation block, retail units and warehouses.

More than £15m was raised through private sales and auctions, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The council, which warned in February that it faced bankruptcy, said it needed to manage assets better and had disposed of properties that might carry a future "disbenefit".

The authority currently has a temporary capitalisation direction from the government, allowing it to use the receipts from asset sales to fund revenue costs in its budget.

It said individual sale prices could not be disclosed.

However, one site - a DPD depot in Raunds, Northamptonshire, which was purchased in 2017 - appears to have been sold at a £620,000 loss, according to council documents.

In 2020/21, it was delivering rental income of more than £477,000, papers showed.

Other disposals include a vacant office in Cambridge, where the council surrendered its lease, and two properties in Southampton that were sold at auction.

Labour councillor Sarah Bogle, in charge of Southampton's economic development, said decisions were taken as part of a five-year asset development and disposal programme (ADDP).

She said: "We want to have the right assets and use them much better and manage them a lot better, which I think historically we haven't always done."

ADDP manager Julianna Clark said the council had secured "good" capital receipts, with some above initial estimates.

She said: "These particular assets that we chose are saying it is better for you to cash the capital receipt because in the longer term you could potentially hold it for a disbenefit."

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