As plans are made to cut spending - could Birmingham City Council sell off land and buildings?
The city's public library - complete with an amphitheatre, gardens and hundreds of thousands of books - opened to the public in 2013It is believed to be Europe's largest public lending library and houses one of the UK's most important Shakespeare collections.
A lease back sees an owner sell a property to a third party who then agrees to simultaneously rent it back to the original owner on completion so they can remain in place.Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery is currently closed for maintenance works "An asset sale for an authority so rich in land is absolutely right - but I'm sure the focus will be on sites [and] land of strategic value."With assets like Sarehole Mill, which has connections to Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien, Rob Mayor said there was "puzzlement" at what selling it off might achieve."The major cash they have tied up is in land which can be developed.
"If the council sold off, say, a building, it couldn't immediately use the cash to spend on day-to-day services, but it could put the money in the bank and use the interest to do so," he said.
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