RIFW £21m land deal defended by property advisors

The 15 sites sold in one deal included farmland and former industrial locations

Property advisors at the centre of criticism about the sale of public land in Wales have defended their actions.

Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) advised the Regeneration Investment Fund for Wales about the sale of 15 publicly-owned sites for £21m in one deal in 2012.

The Wales Audit Office claimed the land could have been sold for £36m.

Managers from LSH told AMs they had got value for money, but if they had their time again they would have tried to prove they got best value.

There was also criticism from the consultants Deloitte, in an internal report commissioned by the Welsh government, which described LSH as a "passive marketing agent" that provided little advice or analysis.

No 'fire sale'

Giving evidence to the public accounts committee on Tuesday, Jeremy Green from LSH said: "There was an imperative to sell the assets in a timely manner.

"We were not under any impression that this was a fire sale and that we had to sell under any cost.

"Our duty was to obtain value and we believe we did that.

"The only thing we would do again would be to strive to prove that we had achieved best value, so that we did not have to sit here and answer these questions now."

In response to questions about the lack of open marketing of the land, another LSH manager, Lee Mogridge, said the sites had a range of technical problems over ownership which meant that they could not have been advertised more openly.

He also defended the sale of all of the sites in one deal, rather than being sold separately, claiming that it took the risk out of the deal for the board.

But Mr Mogridge could not fully answer repeated questions from the committee chair Darren Millar that not all of the offers for the land were reported to the board by LSH.

The most valuable site for sale covered 120 acres (50 hectares) of farmland on the edge of Cardiff, which could now be earmarked for housing.

The land was sold for £15,000 an acre (£37,500 per hectare) but one valuation has now estimated that large chunks of that land could be worth up to £2m an acre (£5m per hectare).

It was confirmed for the first time that the taxpayer will receive 30 percent of any increase in value, although BBC Wales understands that those terms expire in 18 months time.