MICHAEL GOVE’S government department will encourage councils in England to sell publicly owned buildings and other assets worth up to £23 billion under plans to plug budget shortfalls.

The plans by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities would give councils greater flexibility to use money raised from asset disposals to pay for day to day spending.

It comes amid a multi-billion-pound crisis in local government funding, with Birmingham City Council, Europe’s biggest local authority, declaring bankruptcy in November. Tory governments have cut local authority funds by over 40 per cent since 2010.