A total of £331m has been raised by the Commission for the New Towns through the sale of commercial property and development land in the past 12 months — an increase of £115m on the 12 months before that.
This latest figure — a record for the CNT over a 12-month period — brings the overall sum raised by the government agency since it embarked on privatisation in 1979 to £1.272bn.
“While the market started off buoyantly,” commented the CNT’s chairman, Sir Neil Shields, “trading became more difficult in the latter part of the year and the 1988-89 record figure was only achieved by intense effort.”
The CNT estimates that it still has £1bn of property in its nationwide portfolio.
In September, more assets are to be transferred to the CNT with the disbanding of the Warrington/ Runcorn Development Corporation, followed by Telford in 1991 and Milton Keynes in 1992.
