Swansea's Up For Sale

An intriguing set of tables in the council minutes from 25 Feb 2010, shows a reponse to a previous question raised by a councillor on land and property disposal made by the council since 2004.

In the last 6 years the council has received £30.4 million from the sale of council owned dwellings and land.

Year	Total from sale of Dwellings and Land
2004/05	£10,407,804
2005/06	£6,892,250
2006/07	£5,980,878
2007/08	£5,536,031
2008/09	£1,131,940
2009/10	£485,534
Total	£30,434,437

This is a phenomenal figure and although it has reduced a lot in the last 2 years, you have to wonder where this money has been spent. I would assume that it has been used to offset the shortfall in the council budget in recent years, but as there have been less sales in recent years then it is now the time to make serious cutbacks in order to prop up the budget.

Interestingly at the height of the disposals back in 2007, cabinet member for finance, John Newbury, stated that the sale of council assets would be used to spend on services for the people of Swansea.

It appears that the council policy in recent years has been to flog as much as it owns in order to just get by. What can we expect next, perhaps business sponsored naming of public buildings? How about The Cash-Converters Civic Centre for a start.....