Conservatives on Bromley Council have reacted angrily to Gordon Brown’s plans to have local councils sell assets to plug the hole in the government’s finances.

The Prime Minister today announced £16bn of asset sales in an attempt to reduce the massive budget deficit. However, only £3bn is to come from selling assets directly owned by central government.

The remainder of the total is to be raised by “encouraging” local authorities to sell assets of their own over the next two years.

Cllr. Neil Reddin

Cllr. Neil Reddin, Cabinet Member for Resources on Bromley, said, “The clear implication is that Gordon Brown plans to cut funding to local government even more than he has already, and expects us to sell Council assets to make up the difference.

“There are two major problems with Gordon Brown’s approach. First is that you can only sell these assets once, but cuts in our government funding will have to made up for many years into the future. If he expects us to start draining our cash reserves, then that will create more problems as we lose the interest we get on those funds.

“Secondly, we in Bromley have been avoiding selling property while prices are depressed, unless there are exceptional circumstances. Gordon Brown might have been happy to sell our gold reserves at the bottom of the market, but we do not intend to do the same with what are effectively our residents’ assets.

“It’s Gordon Brown’s poor handling of the public finances over the last twelve years that left us so badly prepared for the recession; now he expects residents in financially prudent councils like Bromley to get him out of the hole he’s dug for himself.”