Britain’s indebted councils have been spending billions of pounds on commercial property, raising fears that local authorities have ramped up their exposure to the troubled UK high street just as specialist investors look to exit.
Councils invested £4bn in land and buildings in the financial year to March 2018, an increase of 43% from a year earlier, according to data from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Officials believe £1.8bn of last year’s total was for investment purposes, a sixfold increase from 2014.
