Land and buildings form part of local authorities’ fixed assets and details of these must be published under the Code. Most authorities hold an asset register for land and buildings and annually publish the overall value of their fixed assets as part of their statement of accounts. The Code now makes it mandatory for local authorities to publish details of each land and building asset at least annually with a preference for more frequent updates as and when the register changes.

'Land and building assets' include:
• all service and office properties occupied or controlled by local authorities, both freehold and leasehold
• any properties occupied or run under Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts
• all other properties local authorities own or use, for example, hostels, laboratories, investment properties and depots
• garages unless rented as part of a housing tenancy agreement • surplus, sublet or vacant properties owned by local authorities
• undeveloped land
• serviced or temporary offices where contractual or actual occupation exceeds 3 months
• all future authority commitments, for example under an agreement for lease, from when a contractual commitment is made.
Properties must also be included even if they are part of a larger estate (for instance, a school caretaker’s property on the site of a school, or a residential property on the site of a farm). Any land or building where the council has currently a property interest should be included. This could include, for example, playing fields or buildings of church run schools

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