John Howell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Howell on 2015-10-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what obligation there is on local authorities to publish online a property asset register; and to what timetable such an obligation must be met.

Mr Marcus Jones

Local people expect their local authorities to make the most of its land and assets, sharing their estate with other organisations and selling empty or high value property that is unnecessarily being retained. To ensure local people are able to scrutinise how their local authority manages its assets the Government made it a legal requirement for local authorities to annually publish details of the land and assets it owns in a readable format.

Under the Local Government Transparency Code 2015, local authorities are required to publish details about the land it owns (subject to a few exceptions), including details of its location, and the value of its social housing stock.

Local authorities were required to first publish details of its land and assets by February 2015 and details of their social housing stock by September 2015.