The council’s leader, Councillor Jim Robbins, has proposed a motion to be considered by all councillors at their meeting next week proposing a municipal wealth fund be set up.
Cllr Robbins’ motion said: “Swindon Borough Council is a major local asset owner and that the Wichelstowe Joint Venture is expected to generate receipts and/or land value uplift over the coming phases of development.”
It adds that there is evidence and experience to show that “cities can increase long-term public revenues and finance strategic investments by placing commercial public assets under professionalised, transparent management in a municipal wealth fund.”
The idea is that receipts from house sales in the Wichelstowe expansion development would be used to set up the fund.
It would then provide money for projects across the borough. The plan is that the fund is self-sustaining- it would invest in projects and schemes that return money to the fund or would just use the interest earned on projects where no return is expected.
Cllr Robbins told the Local Democracy Reporter: “We’re looking at a figure between £40 and £50m coming to the council from the Wichelstowe joint venture between 2020 and 2036.
“It depends on a number of external factors, but that’s the expectation.”
The motion says money will be used “to directly support the council’s strategic missions to Build a Fairer Swindon, Build a Better Swindon and Build a Greener Swindon.”
Cllr Robbins told the LDR that one idea might be increasing the number of solar panels on the roofs of council houses and blocks of flats.
He said: “In this example, residents could have cheaper, maybe even free electricity, but the council would get the cash generated by any electricity going back into the grid, until that has paid the installation costs back into the fund.
“The idea is to keep money coming back to the fund, or just use the interest, so we can keep reusing the fund.”
If the motion is passed, it will mandate the council’s chief executive officer, Sam Mowbray, to draw up a report on how the fund would be managed.
This would include the legal body set up to oversee the fund and exploring how it will work with other community bodies to fund projects.
The council meeting starts at 7pm on Thursday, February 26.
