Councils now hold £6.4bn of commercial property, with 24 councils owning assets worth more than twice their core budgets.
Spelthorne Council still leads the pack, with its £1bn commercial property portfolio worth 88 times its £11m annual spending power.
Woking Council in Surrey has a portfolio of £373.3m, but a budget of just £13.1m. It has spent £100m of that since 2017, despite critics calling this practice “a disaster waiting to happen”.
Analysis by the Taxpayers’ Alliance shows 37 councils now own commercial property worth more than their annual spending power.
The Times notes that £6.4bn is more than the cost of the entire UK aircraft carrier fleet.
