MPs call on Chancellor to protect national treasures from sell offs

As Chancellor Philip Hammond prepares to deliver the Autumn Statement, 44 MPs have called on the government to confirm it will not be selling off the Land Registry, Channel 4 and other public assets. 

Early Day Motion (EDM) 689 entitled ‘SALE OF PUBLIC ASSETS’ was tabled by Green MP Caroline Lucas last week. It is co-sponsored by Labour MPs Graham Jones, Alan Meale and David Lammy (who led the party’s campaign on the Land Registry), Hywel Williams, Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader and Jim Shannon, Democratic Unionist Party spokesperson on health, transport and equality.

There are indications that the government is reconsidering asset sales planned under the previous administration. The Land Registry privatisation plans appear to have been shelved after public outcry. It’s still not clear what the future holds for Channel 4. Plans to sell off the public stake in National Air Traffic Services and introduce private sector capital into Ordnance Survey have not been cancelled, but do not seem to have made progress.

The 44 MPs are calling on the government to put an end to a failed policy of privatisation which was a priority for the previous Chancellor, George Osborne. They want the government to confirm that these national treasures will now stay in public hands. 

Thousands of our supporters have contacted their MPs asking them to sign the EDM. This time last year, We Own It carried out polling to show the strength of public opposition to Osborne’s planned sales.

Caroline Lucas MP said: “This week the Chancellor has an opportunity to announce that he is going to keep our national treasures in public hands. An ideological obsession with privatisation has stripped this country of many of our precious public services – and left taxpayers out of pocket in the process. We know that public ownership is more efficient – yet we’ve seen the Conservatives attempt to complete Thatcher and Blair’s privatisation project. As a new chancellor Phillip Hammond has the chance to change course and make the sound economic choice of keeping these assets in public hands.”

David Lammy MP said: “The Government’s decision to see sense and not push ahead with the privatisation of the Land Registry was an important victory for the public interest and in his Autumn Statement the Chancellor must put this issue to bed by confirming that these plans will not see the light of day again. Selling off public assets might help the Treasury to balance the books in the short term, but flogging these national treasures to the highest bidder would be short-sighted and misguided”. 

Our research with the New Economics Foundation shows how long term profits from public assets outweigh the short term cash gained by selling them off. The research showed that the public purse will be worse off in 10 years time as a result of the Royal Mail sale because of the millions in profit lost each year. Selling off the Land Registry would mean losing out within 25 years, while selling the public stake in National Air Traffic Services would lose us money in just 7 years.

Selling off the Royal Mail was a huge mistake. Now we have an opportunity to keep other national treasures proudly in public hands - like the Land Registry, Channel 4 and National Air Traffic Services. We hope the new Chancellor will take this opportunity to end the failed policy of privatisation for the sake of it. It makes more economic sense to keep these profitable assets in public ownership - and that's what the public wants too.