MYSTERY remains over what assets BCP Council is looking to sell as the local authority looks to balance its budget. 

The local authority is pressing ahead with plans to address a £20million gap in the current financial year by selling off “historic, non-strategic assets”. 

What these assets are remain a mystery and, as reported, will not be disclosed due to “commercial sensitivity”. 

The mystery assets are described as “performing quite well in this environment” which has given BCP Council leader Drew Mellor “real confidence” that now is a good time to sell. 

Read more: Council officers cannot guarantee assets will be sold in time

Speaking at the cabinet meeting on Wednesday, November 23, Cllr Mellor said: “We are looking to either dispose of some non-strategic assets or utilise the government’s capitalisation system. 

“The other thing we inherited was quite a varied array of assets that we are looking to dispose of.  

“We’ve looked at those and we believe that quite a lot of those assets are actually really quite strategic or really important to communities or to our regeneration agenda. 

“The assets we have got in our confidential appendix now are effectively historic, non strategic assets that are investment for yield. 

Read more: BCP Council leader defends plan to sell income making assets

“The government are quite clear that they don’t want us to move towards more investment yield so it would be balancing our portfolio by moving some of those assets on. 

“By doing that we can keep our strategic assets that our community find so important and for regeneration needs as well. 

“If you look at the detail of the assets we’ve put forward they are in areas that are performing quite well in this environment – I won’t go into any more detail than that, but it gives us real confidence it’s a good time to look to dispose of those assets.” 

The Daily Echo previously asked what these assets are but the council remain tight-lipped. 

The assets would likely come into the public domain when they are marketed and/or any sales over £500,000, which would require full council approval. 

A report by chief finance officer Adam Richens said the assets must be sold by the end of March 2023, as it will be "critical if the council is to avoid drawing down on the “minded-to” capitalisation direction."