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For sale: government land assets from Bangkok to Chelsea
Last updated at 00:07am on 12.12.06Gordon Brown is sitting on up to £1,000 billion of public assets - four times more than the Government thought - it was revealed yesterday.
The colossal value of buildings, land and other assets owned by the Government has emerged because Mr Brown has begun selling off billions of pounds worth of assets to plug the black hole in his coffers.
• Government moves to cut its own red tape
Officials have been shocked by the sky high profits they have made from several land sales - dwarfing the official values listed in the Government's National Asset Register, which is supposed to list everything the Government owns.
Last night, MPs said that the Chancellor should not sit on such an immense treasure chest but should speed up the sales to put the money to better use for taxpayers.
Mr Brown is committed to raising £30billion by 2011. With five years to go he has already sold off £12bn of assets.
The British Embassy in Bangkok sold off less than four acres "of the noisiest most polluted and least used" part of the 13-acre Embassy grounds to a shopping centre and raked in £50million. The entire complex was valued at just £8.8m in the 2001 National Asset Register.
The register lists all Government buildings from No 10 Downing Street to Whitehall departments, embassies and military bases plus all vehicles, computers and other equipment.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs recently sold Tangmere Grain Store in Cheshire for £4.05m to property developers. It was previously valued at £647,000 - a sixfold increase.
This week the Ministry of Defence is expected to announce the short-list of buyers for the Chelsea Barracks, 13 acres in central London, valued at £58.5m on the register. MoD officials are confidently predicting that the land will actually fetch £500m.
Treasury officials said government departments have to value their property annually based on the worth of assets as they are, rather than what land might be worth if it has planning permission and was sold off to developers.
But one Whitehall source said: "There have been some large bounties. The average mark ups have been by a factor of around four."
The last time the 700-page National Asset Register was compiled in 2001, the total assets were worth £270billion. If the huge sale prices were mirrored across the rest of the Government estate, the assets would be worth well in excess of £1,000 billion - or one trillion pounds.
Knowing the correct value of Government assets is important because the Chancellor can borrow against them.
The Treasury is working on a new NAR, due to be released next summer. However, some are questioning whether the exercise is a waste of time if the Government's valuations are so inaccurate.
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable branded the register "largely meaningless". He added: "Recent sales show that land assets are massively undervalued. The Government sits on too many assets for too long. They have been sitting on a lot of land that could be sold off to reduce government borrowing, reduce interest payments and get better value for money.
"Most private businesses have sold their buildings and leased back the premises because they get better value."
The Treasury stressed that no "family silver" is being sold off by Mr Brown, but only unwanted and unproductive parts of the government estate.
A spokesman cited the recent sell-off of a parcel of land where vehicles used in the construction of a new road were stored during the building process and disposed of once the road was completed and the MoD's decision to dispose of an unwated firing range.
The spokesman said: "The National Asset Register is a vital part of the Government's drive to improve efficiency in the public sector, enabling more informed decisions about the holding, acquisition and disposal of assets. The Register helps departments to make the best use of everything they own, and to judge whether assets are still needed."
