CBC’s INDEPENDENT ADMINISTRATION PLAN TO SELL OFF £168MILLION WORTH OF PUBLIC ASSETS IN THE NEXT FOUR YEARS.
TLDR: CBC’s Independents plan to sell off £168million worth of public assets but we haven't been told which assets and the values on the balance sheet may not even reflect the amount raised from a future sale.
As part of the budget set by Central Bedfordshire’s New Independent Administration, they have promised the sale of £168million worth of public assets. Which assets? Couldn’t tell you.
FYI this is gonna be really boring.
There is a tight accounting process around our assets. There is a list of over 15,000 assets held by the council, which range from the council offices at Chicksands to agricultural land to laptops and phones. When an asset depreciates in value that needs to be recorded in the Councils statement of accounts. The true current value of an asset is called its “Carrying Amount” or “Book Value”.
For example, let’s imagine that someone thinks it would be a really good idea to buy their spouse a soft serve ice cream machine for their birthday, regardless of the fact that they can’t really afford it, because buying other people presents releases Oxytocin and maybe this particular person has ADHD and is hard wired to hunt for Dopamine. So they spend half of the money they’ve saved up to re-do the bathroom on a soft serve ice cream machine because they think “who doesn’t love a Mr Whippy?”
Every year, the amount of money that they will get if they try to re-sell their new ice cream machine goes down. Like how a car loses value as soon as you drive it off a forecourt… that would have been a much better analogy… I’ll use that one next time. You start with the original purchase cost, then subtract the amount the ice cream machine (or car) loses in value every year - this leaves you with the book value.
Then there’s “Fair Value” which is something different. If, all of a sudden, there happens to be a T.V. show all about making soft serve ice cream, staring Paul Hollywood and Richard Osman, and our Ice cream machine owner hasn’t actually seen the show because although they’re on OK terms with Richard Osman, they think maybe he’s just too straight laced to be comedic relief and they’d prefer a little more diversity in their T.V. Shows. Listen guys, there’s loads of great comedians out there, what about Lolly Adefope? She’s amazing!
Anyway, out of sheer luck, there’s a run on ice cream machines and the price has gone through the roof. If the machine is valued higher than its current book value, then the person can sell it for more! This sum is called the “Fair Value”.
CBC’s accounts state that when it becomes likely that an asset’s carrying amount can be recovered through selling it rather than using it then the asset can be listed on the balance sheet as “Held for Sale”, that is only if there is a likelihood of selling that particular asset. The current amount of CBC assets held for sale according to the 22/23 statement of accounts is only £1.9million which is about £166million short of the planned sales. But wait, the accounts also list “Surplus Assets” at £101million.
Which assets are the “Surplus Assets”? I would love to tell you. I want to know what assets are classed as “surplus” as they’re likely going to be the ones being sold. There is no public record of surplus assets because of “commercial sensitivity”, so we don’t even know if it’s our ice cream machine, or our car, or even our house that they want to sell but I have been promised the full list of 15,000 assets.
“Surplus assets are those assets not providing service potential to the authority but not meeting the criteria for Assets Held For Sale”, Thank you, Deputy Chief Exec and Director for Resources, for the definition.
In our scenario, if our ice cream machine owner suddenly develops a severe lactose intolerance then the machine can’t be used and is classed a surplus asset because there’s no potential use for it, although to be fair you could use it for Sorbet. It’s a fantastically versatile machine, a feat of engineering really, the only problem is no-one likes Sorbet. It’s the dessert equivalent of Barney Walsh, sure he tastes fine, but he just doesn’t fill you up like Bradley does.
Here is the real fun question…
If the Independents are going to sell £168m of assets, and theres only £101m of surplus assets, and only £1.9m worth of assets held for sale, then which non-surplus assets to tune of £65m are they gonna sell off? I wonder if they even know.
More stats:
It would appear the Current amount of assets held by Central Bedfordshire Council is a whopping £2.081bn.
The total accumulated carrying amount or depreciation of all assets over the years up to 2022 was £181million.
Between 2022 and 2023 there was recorded depreciation of £38 million, and £18million was written out, making a total current Depreciation of £202 million.
Milton Keynes council are planning £30m of sales over 4 years.
Buckinghamshire council £79.8m capital receipts over 4 years.
You can view the councils statement of accounts here:
