Council could make £5m is asset sales

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporting Service

Powys council leader Jake Berriman has predicted the authority could make £5 million in asset sales this year.

The hopeful forecast was made at a meeting of Powys County Council’s Finance Panel on Wednesday, May 13, as the panel looked at an update report on the Capital Budget for 2025/2026 as it stood at the end of February.

At the meeting, councillors pointed out that the council would fall a long way short of a £10 million target in annual sales.

This is because only £800,000 had been guaranteed in sales with potentially a further £1.7 million in the pipeline to be finalised by the end of March

Cllr Arwel Lewis (Powys Independents – Llandysilio) asked for clarification on the figures and when the capital receipts would be received by the council.

Treasury management accountant  James Chappelle confirmed that the £800,000 had been received during the year up to February and it was hoped with a “good wind on both sides” that the £1.7 million sales would be completed by March 31.

Cllr Lewis said: “That’s a lot lower than anticipated really. We’re going to be £7 million to £8 million short.”

Cllr Berriman (Liberal Democrat – Llandrindod North) said: “If you remember, full council decided it didn’t want us to pursue a £10 million target.

“So, we’re not £7million or £8 million short of that because they decided the target would be removed.

“It’s not as much as we would have liked but we’re operating within the constraints that we have – we’ve had a number of sales fall through.

“We anticipate £1.7 million now and as far as I can see with sales that are progressing, we could be around £5 million in the 2026/2027 financial year, but that’s not against a £10 million target as that was stood down.”

The target was removed in July last year as opposition councillors joined forces against the minority Liberal Democrat/Labour administration and voted in favour of a motion to scrap the sales target.

This was an attempt to pause the sale of county farms in Powys which has become a political football in the county in recent years.

Money raised by asset sales – officially called capital receipts – helps fund council building and maintenance projects and means that the authority would need to borrow less money and in turn pay less interest on top of that.

This also affects decisions on setting the rate of Council Tax each year.