The 8 assets that made BCP Council £2.7million last year

BCP Council owns a number of assets across the conurbation and brings in a multi-million-pound annual income in rents.

The portfolio includes industrial parks, retail parks and university accommodation.

Details provided to the Daily Echo through a Freedom of Information Act show three years on from local government reorganisation in Dorset, not all of BCP Council's assets have been through a full classification process.

At present, the BCP Council investment portfolio comprises of Mallard Road Retail Park, Madeira Road Student Accommodation, Citrus Building (ground floor Turtle Bay), Wessex Trade Centre, Dolphin Shopping Centre, Saxon Square, Airfield Industrial Park and Parkway House Avenue Road.

The Citrus Building in Bournemouth town centre

A local authority spokesperson said: “In addition, the legacy authorities have other properties that currently sit under an investment designation.

“However, we are currently working on consolidating asset classification and are therefore unable to provide details of these properties at this time as this designation may change in the near future.”

The council cited commercial confidentiality as a reason for not being able to provide an asset by asset income for 2020/21, but it said the combined investment portfolio income for that period was £2,770,648.71.

Over the past decade several local authorities built up large investment portfolios through loans at very low rates from Government body the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB).

This was until central Government banned councils from buying up investment property using this source November 2020 after £6.6billion was borrowed in loans to carry out acquisitions between 2016-17 and 2018-19.

The Treasury said it was not appropriate to use PWLB in this way and it changed the rules meaning that now before a loan is signed off, the council has to “confirm that there is no intention to buy investment assets primarily for yield at any point in the next three years”.

BCP Council said it had not added to its investment portfolio since the unitary authority was formed in April 2019.

In a statement, a BCP Council spokesman said the income from the investment portfolio is included in the council’s Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) as part of its statutory obligation to deliver a balanced budget.

"The council will regularly review its investment portfolio and will consider any changes in compliance with its corporate objectives and regulatory guidance,” the spokesman said.

"As part of the council’s balanced budget, all receipts enable the delivery of Council services.

"The council has no current plans to redevelop or transform its investment portfolio."

As exclusively revealed by the Daily Echo in 2018, Bournemouth Borough Council bought Mallard Road Retail Park for £49million with money borrowed from other local authorities.

Mallard Road retail park

The freehold for Saxon Square in Christchurch and Dolphin Centre in Poole were transferred to BCP Council when the respective borough councils ceased to exist in 2019.

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