The Herald:

SCOTLAND’S  health boards have sold off hundreds of assets, including hospitals and health centres, as property worth more than £350 million has been shed by public bodies to bridge budget shortfalls.

A special investigation by The Ferret news organisation has revealed that some 166 land and property assets were sold by NHS boards, including 34 hospitals and 30 healthcare clinics. 

Other assets sold included care homes, dental surgeries, mental health clinics and medical staff accommodation.

NHS Tayside sold 28 per cent of its property, Fife and Ayrshire and Arran sold nearly one-quarter, and four others sold one-sixth or more.

In 2018, Audit Scotland said “urgent action” was needed to reverse the declining performance of the NHS, including the need for “longer-term financial planning”.

In February, it estimated that the pandemic would cost the NHS £1.67 billion in 2020/21 alone.

NHS boards told The Ferret that any sold properties were either no longer suitable or required, with services transferred and sale proceeds reinvested in new or improved facilities. 

All sales had complied with national protocols directed by the Scottish Government and were externally audited to “ensure best value”, they said.

NHS Tayside argued that it “continues to have one of the biggest health board property footprints in Scotland” and had no plans to sell more property to balance its next budget.

Meanwhile, Scottish universities sold 53 assets worth £83.76 million, while colleges sold 115 assets totalling at least £26.27m. 

These included campuses, housing, land plots, office buildings and car parks. Scotland’s Rural College – which accounted for 88 college asset sales – and the University of the West of Scotland declined to reveal their sale prices and buyer information.

Read more: Ferret investigation: Public bodies shed property to balance books

Universities Scotland, which represents Scotland’s higher education institutions, said its members have “an overwhelming capital maintenance backlog” of more than £850m. 
A spokesman said: “The strategic review and sale of assets they no longer require is a drop in the ocean of that much bigger funding challenge.

“All proceeds are reinvested in addressing that challenge and universities’ wider teaching, learning and research needs.”

The colleges sector body, Colleges Scotland, argued that property sales were “a normal part of estates management” and “can be part of the overall strategy to allow new buildings and renovations to be affordable.” 

A spokesman added: “Investment in modern facilities improves the learning experience for students, and the working environment for staff.”

The Ferret requested the data in November 2019 and appealed to the Scottish Information Commissioner after some public bodies provided either partial data, or none at all.

Due to the Covid-19 lockdown, it did not receive an appeal outcome until late 2020. The commissioner ruled that the data could be purchased via Registers of Scotland.

Due to costs involved, The Ferret is missing some or all the sold asset data held by six public bodies. As such, the scale of land and property sold will be even greater than the data shows.

What is deemed a public property “asset” can range from war memorials and recycling points to industrial estates and entire streets. As such, the number of sold assets does not necessarily relate to size or value.

Some public bodies also publish registers of all the land and property they currently own. 

By comparing the number of properties sold between 2015 and 2019 with these current registers, The Ferret was able to find out what proportion of assets had been sold.

The investigation revealed that Scotland’s councils have sold off land and property worth than £320m as they battle severe budget cuts.

The sell-off comes as councils face making deep cuts to public services – with the latest figures suggesting local authorities have received a reduction to non-ringfenced revenue funding by £937.3m in real terms between 2013/14 and 2021/22.

The Scottish Government has insisted councils have been given a fair funding deal, but Cosla, the umbrella group for local authorities, has pointed to a funding reduction in real terms for both day-to-day revenue spending and capital projects.

At Cosla’s conference on Friday, Alison Evison, the organisation’s president, warned a lack of cash is preventing councils from “solving some of the problems facing our communities”.

The property cashed in to prop up town hall finances includes schools, nurseries, care homes, libraries, public toilets, swimming pools and community centres. Figures obtained through freedom of information law show that between 2015 and 2019, 30 local authorities sold 2,663 land and property assets worth £320,693,750. 

North Lanarkshire and South Ayrshire councils did not provide any information about property sales, while Aberdeenshire and Clackmannanshire withheld the sale prices and buyer details.

Following the investigation, concerns have been raised about the extent of the sell-off.

Labour MSP Neil Findlay is now calling for a new approach on how public land and property is managed. 

He said: “This is brilliant work showing land and public assets being sold on an unprecedented scale at the same time as we have a housing crisis across the country.

There is little doubt that these sales are all tied up with cuts to budgets and public services with health boards, councils and others forced to sell land to plug funding gaps.

“The Scottish Government and public bodies must come together to stop this fire sale of assets and plan how we can use public buildings, land and community assets to regenerate communities, provide jobs and, most importantly, housing for those in need.”

A spokesperson for the Public Matters group, which campaigns for public ownership of key services, said: “We welcome this research, as the data on sale of public property across all Government departments can be hard to establish.

“Nonetheless it has been estimated that over 50 per cent of all public property has been sold or given away over the last 30 years. 

“This troubling research shows that process is accelerating in Scotland. 

“Our public and civic space is being reshaped. We are being excluded from places we could once rightfully occupy. There should be far greater awareness of this.”

The Ferret is an editorially independent, not-for-profit co-operative run by its journalists and subscribers. You can find it at https://theferret.scot/ and can subscribe for £3 a month here: https://theferret.scot/subscribe/