Leicestershire’s property portfolio generates £7.1m

Leicestershire County Council’s portfolio of commercial property has generated more than £7m over the last 12 months, according to new figures.

The figures the portfolio generated a total of £7.1m and produced a total net return of 6.2% for the local authority, compared to the bank base rate of 0.3%.

The council said the money will go towards fixing and preventing potholes, delivering social care for adults and children, and other frontline services, helping to mitigate some of the demand pressures facing critical services.

The property portfolio includes:

• A new 100,000 sq. ft building at Loughborough University Science and Enterprise Park – creating a new HQ for tech firm The Access Group. It will create 500 jobs when it opens in November 2020.
• Apollo Business Park in Coalville – offering 40,000 sq. ft industrial units and creating 120 jobs. Eight units have been let, with another four under offer.
• Airfield Business Park in Market Harborough – the council expanded the site by 80,000 sq. ft to offer industrial units to let, creating more than 200 jobs. Eight out of the 12 units available have been let, with another two under offer.
• Quorn solar farm – plans to build a 62-acre solar farm – producing clean, green energy – alongside 45,500 sq. ft. of small business units have been submitted for approval.

In the past, some councils have been criticised for investing large sums of money in commercial property.

The National Audit Office (NAO) published a report in February, which showed councils in England spent £6.6bn on supermarkets, office blocks and warehouses between 2016 and 2019.

‘It is very encouraging to see that our portfolio of properties is thriving and performing better than the industry average,’ said cabinet member for finance and resources, Cllr Bryon Rhodes.

‘This continued good performance allows us to fund important services at this particularly difficult time with Covid-19 putting additional burdens on our finances.

‘Our approach of bringing new life to old commercial sites and building new workspaces is creating hundreds of jobs and boosting the economy,’ added Cllr Rhodes.

‘Crucially, it means we can invest money into vital frontline services, maintaining our roads, bringing down the inconvenience to people who use them, and explore how we can bolster social care services, supporting vulnerable people.’

Photo Credit – Free-Photos (Pixabay)