Don't sell off 'family silver', councils urged

The Tenant Farmers Association has expressed its severe alarm over the number of county councils and other local authorities who are now considering selling county council farms in an attempt to cope with changes to their annual budgets.

The TFA listed North Yorkshire County Council as being amongst the councils pursuing this policy and warned that this week's budget cuts could incite other local authorities to consider it too.

However, the TFA said that selling off county council farms would not be an effective use of taxpayers' money and would result in negative effects on the environment and employment.

George Dunn, TFA chief executive, told the Yorkshire Post: "We have always been concerned about North Yorkshire's policy over the past 10 years or so. It has been selling off everything that becomes vacant.

"We think that the best way to manage local authority farms is to treat them as any other asset and to try and take the maximum income from it."

He said that selling off farms now would be like "selling off the family silver".

"What might look good for the books for the next five years can actually be a high income-earning asset for the future – something that would give better value for taxpayers."

The TFA has long argued that local authorities should be including their county farm estates within their asset management plans, pointing to the example of one council in Gloucestershire which has raised around 100m over the last 30 years in this way.

Stephen King, of the TFA, said: "County farms are precious assets which local authorities should be seeking to protect rather than to dispose of.

"We are very worried at the indecent dash for cash that is evident in many county halls who are looking to liquidate otherwise viable assets as quickly as possible.

"Once these assets are gone, they are gone for good. There is broad agreement amongst all who those have studied county farms that not only can they provide a positive financial return to local authorities but they provide many non-financial benefits including access to the countryside, education outside the classroom, greenbelt and flood management assistance, renewable energy development and rural employment."

A spokeswoman for North Yorkshire County Council said: "The capital appreciation of farms represents good value for money for the taxpayer whenever county farms come up for release, as these capital receipts can be used to help fund the county council's priority capital projects."

CW 23/10/10