Apology over failure to sell enough assets

A senior county councillor has apologised for failing to come anywhere near hitting a target to raise £10 million a year for Powys County Council by selling off land and assets.

At a meeting of the council’s Liberal Democrat and Labour cabinet on Tuesday, April 8, senior councillors received a report on the forecast capital budget for 2024/2025 as it stood at the end of February.

With a month left, the report indicated that only £1.02 million had been received which includes £280,000 for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) which manages the council’s housing stock.

The report said: “It will not be possible to achieve (the) annual target of £10 million capital receipts this financial year due to sales falling through and delays with other sales.”

A further £1.34 million in sales had been agreed but the report explained these are at the “legal stage of the process” and are expected to be completed in the future.

This is a far cry from the capital budget reports published last summer which predicted that at least £9.89 million in capital receipts would be achieved.

Planning and property portfolio holder, Liberal Democrat Cllr Jake Berriman said: “I apologise for not delivering the anticipated capital receipts that we had hoped for.

“I know this has a strain on revenue (budget) and I do wish to double down efforts to ensure that I improve the flow of capital receipts into the organisation.”

Cllr Berriman explained that he had discussed the situation with finance portfolio holder Cllr David Thomas (Labour) to bring forward, “monthly rather than quarterly” reports on sales as they “progress” through the system.

Council leader, Cllr James Gibson-Watt thanked him for his comments and the report was noted and the virements approved by cabinet.

Capital receipts can be used to fund council building schemes but not the day to day running of the council.

The issue with the 2024/2025 capital receipts target is that a major and controversial land deal worth £5 million fell through just before Christmas.

A decision was taken in secret by the Liberal Democrat/Labour cabinet in September 2023 to sell 218 acres of the council’s farm estate known as Gwyn’s Barns in the village of Leighton near Welshpool.

The buyers were believed to be Welshpool based waste and recycling firm; Potters who were said to be willing to offer £5 million for the land.

The decision cause uproar amongst opposition councillors.

The deal was called in for scrutiny by the Economy, Residents and Communities committee back in October – and despite calls for the meeting to be held in public, the probe took place in secret.

Originally the council’s capital budget for 2024/2025 which is to fund building and maintenance projects had been £102.5 million.

This had been revised down to £75.76 million and as it stood at the end of February the actual spending had been £56.288 million.

The report said that 30 per cent of this budget, worth £22.37 million comes from borrowing with the interest being paid by the main revenue budget.