Shropshire Council land sales to fund £12.5m redundancies and £20m IT system

In an updated version of its financial plan, the authority says it intends to use capital receipts, which can be generated by the sale of council property, to help pay for around £38 million of spending.

The schemes include £12.5 million earmarked to pay for future redundancies, £20.2 million to be spent on the authority's IT digital transformation scheme, and £5.1 million on replacing the children and adult social care IT system.

Conservative council leader Malcolm Pate has previously revealed that the authority is reviewing its entire property portfolio with the possibility of selling a number of buildings or pieces of land.

He said: "We are looking at a lot of options to raise capital to support the revenue budget and there are several items that we are looking at that we may or may not consider selling."

It has been suggested that Shrewsbury's Meole Brace Golf Club is one site which is being considered for sale.

Previously capital receipts could not be spent on ongoing revenue costs, however, changes to legislation mean that authorities can now use them to fund service reform, where they are predicted to generate ongoing savings.

The council is investigating the possibility of sharing premises with other public sector organisations, such as the police and health service, as part of a "one public estate" review.

A report from the council's chief finance officer James Walton states: "A full and thorough analysis of our capital assets and our ability to generate capital receipts will now be undertaken over the summer. The initial working target for capital receipts is £38 million."

The move has been criticised by the council's Labour group leader, Councillor Alan Mosley, who said he believed the decision had been taken with next year's council elections in mind.

He said: "Clearly they are attempting to buy some time this side of the elections in May 2017 before the full and devastating impact of these cuts become apparent."

Councillor Mosley said he believed the policy is a short term approach to the council's financial difficulties, and that the authority should look to retain its valuable sites.

He said: "It is a short term patch-up for political reasons which might make the long term position of Shropshire Council and its services far worse.

"Ironically they are going to sell off land and other assets at a time when their value, given the potential Brexit impact, is at a very low ebb."