More than 4,000 council assets are being sold by local authorities every year, with the majority going to private developers rather than being transferred to community ownership, according to the local communities charity Locality.

After making freedom of information requests to all 353 local councils in England, Locality says in its report The Great British Sell Off that, although there are no official figures for the number of sales or details of who bought the buildings in question, it appears that councils sold a large number of buildings to private developers every year between 2012 and 2016.

Less than half of councils in England have strategies to support community ownership, Locality says, which shows a “significant lack of planning and a short-term approach to making critical decisions about public buildings and spaces being permanently lost to the community”.