The Tories are selling off public assets at the expense of future income, photo TaxRebate.org.uk (Creative Commons)

The Tories are selling off public assets at the expense of future income, photo TaxRebate.org.uk (Creative Commons)   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Rudi Abdallah

Profit-hungry chancellor George Osborne will damage public finances by privatising the Land Registry and other public assets. A new report has found ongoing income would outstrip the sale’s windfall.

Think tank New Economics Foundation, acting for campaign group We Own It, reports that handing the Registry to the private sector will savage public finances in 25 years’ time. It also warned that if other assets like National Air Traffic Services were sold, the impact would be felt within seven years.

Supporters of We Own It, who crowdfunded the report, are concerned the government is embarking on the most comprehensive privatisation programme since Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street.

The group’s director Cat Hobs said: “The Land Registry is a profitable, successful, innovative organisation doing a great job – why privatise it? We need to think about the wealth of the next generation, not just a ‘quick fix’ on the deficit.”

Osborne’s destructive campaign aims to sell off £20 billion worth of public assets by the end of this parliament. This includes shares in bailed-out banks.

The Tories, determined as ever to sell off every part of the country, breathe in numbers and think in graphs. Those graphs show only the bosses’ profits. They will always put the needs of private enterprise before workers.

The Socialist Party opposes privatisation and austerity. We want key industries including the banks and all public services to come under democratic workers’ ownership and control – to be run in the interests of all, not just a few super-rich shareholders.