Gordon Brown is to provide the details of the long-planned £16bn asset sell-off in this year's pre-budget report, to include the £25bn student loan book and the betting firm Tote, which have proved difficult to sell so far.
The Treasury is to itemise a list of 18 assets it believes can be sold, with a timetable for disposal as part of its deficit reduction programme. Brown is expected to say the assets must be sold within two years.
The Government hopes to raise £3bn from the sale of assets including: the Channel tunnel rail link; the bridge and tunnel crossing over the Thames at Dartford; its 32% holding in the uranium processor Urenco; part of its 51% stake in National Air Traffic Services; the Emergency Planning College; Ordnance Survey; Land Registry; and the Met Office.
A chunk of local government real estate worth £220bn is also to be placed on the market, with the aim of realising an extra £13bn over the next two years.
The controversial move has been described by a Liberal Democrat source as "the largest (sell off) since the 1980s privatisations."
Lib Dem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable said of the asset sell-off: "attempts to sell off large amounts of government land into a very depressed market as we have now would be frankly barmy."
