Local authorities must push ahead with asset sales whether or not central government demands it, the president of the Association of Chief Estates Surveyors said today.

Bob Perry, ACES president and Cornwall Council’s chief valuer and estate surveyor, told PublicPropertyUK.com that he sees a “rocky period ahead” for councils and that they will have to sell assets even if central government does not demand it. Perry made the opening address at the ACES spring conference in Liverpool today.

He told PublicPropertyUK.com: “We wait to see whether the new government will persist with encouraging asset sales, although I suspect that many authorities will still need to major on this anyway on account of their own capital financing requirements.

“Another possibility must be reductions in the capital, and maybe also revenue, grants paid to local authorities.

“These will leave them needing either to make up the shortfall from the council tax or by cutting services.

“Either way I forsee a rocky period ahead which would still have been the case had Labour won or otherwise stayed in office.”

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