The worrying trend, where the York Council fails to put surplus assets (mainly land and property) on the open market, looks set to continue.

There were a lot of raised eyebrows last year when the Council chose to sell land at Hungate for a knock down price. They claimed that this was necessary in order to attract Hiscox insurers to the City.

The trend continued earlier this year when they decided to deal direct with a leaseholder in Redness Street while the adjacent landowner is being given first refusal of the vacated St Anthony’s House office site.

Now we understand that Oliver House may also be sold (or leased) in December without ever reaching the open market.

The Councillor responsible for these decisions was questioned at the Council meeting recently.

He accepted that professional valuations placed on Council assets in the past had substantially under-estimated their real value. This had become apparent on properties such as the Bonding Warehouse and the Edmund Wilson pool site when open market bids greatly exceeded expectations.

However he wouldn’t give an assurance that open market bids would be invited for all upcoming property sales.

The question asked was:

Question: In the light of the new buoyancy in the York development market place, will the Cabinet Member agree that all sales of Council property and land will be subject to a competitive process which maximises the receipt that is available for the taxpayer?”

Cllr Williams responded, “Of course the default position should be to go to the open market. However, there will always be some situations where it makes financial and economic sense not to stick to that default position and not to have a competitive process. This should be if it is felt that one organisation has a special interest in a site and would pay a premium above the going market rate to obtain the site. An example of this would be a sitting leaseholder who wishes to buy the freehold. To have a blanket policy would simply expose the council to potentially not maximising the use of assets.”

Councils have a legal duty to get the best value that they can in their financial dealings.

If they don’t then the District Auditor can be asked to investigate.