By Jamie Waller, Local Democracy Reporter
Nottingham councillors have urged for the social value of properties it owns to be taken into account before they are sold off as part of plans to try to solve the city council’s financial crisis.
Property and land sales are one method of closing the authority’s £50m budget gap for the next financial year, which forced it to effectively declare bankruptcy with a Section 114 notice last month.
The council owns more than 3,600 properties. not including council housing, which are worth more than £1bn collectively, and some of them are now being sold if they are ruled surplus to requirements.
This could be if they became too expensive for the council to maintain, were beyond their lifespan, didn’t generate the required income, or were at risk of becoming long-term vacant.
Ongoing reviews are used to determine whether a property meets these criteria.
However, members of the Housing and City Development Scrutiny Committee stressed community assets had more value than their financial worth.
Councillor Neghat Khan (Lab) told a meeting on Monday (December 18): “We should be looking at what a property can add to the city and area, not just its worth.
“The Edward Lane Community Centre was shut down, and sat there for so long, attracting anti-social behaviour. It was reopened because of the time and the cost of securing it.
“There’s a lot of young people in that area with not much to do. It’s so important they do not turn to criminality.”
Councillor Adele Williams (Lab) agreed: “We should consider the social value of something like a youth centre, which doesn’t pay straight away but saves money for the public purse, NHS and criminal justice system.”
The council is on track to meet its target of £13.6m worth of surplus assets sold in the 2023/24 financial year.
Councillor Steve Battlemuch (Lab), the Portfolio Holder for Skills, Growth, Economic Development and Property, said that if services such as these were lost, “there would be tension in the city – we should be trying to avoid that.
“It’s generally accepted a number of property sales will take place. There’s been a few over the last few years, and will be a lot more over the next two.”
He added that “Sales are going to be one of the answers” to the council’s financial difficulties.
“We want to support community organisations to run buildings. However, a lot of them don’t have the resources, and pay a peppercorn rent while still asking the council to take care of repairs.
“It’s difficult to sustain in the long-term.”
Councillor AJ Matsiko (Lab) also criticised a “culture of thinking that community organisations aren’t capable of running buildings by themselves.”
Director of Economic Development and Property Nicola Jenkins said the council would start by looking at whether properties met set priorities.
