PLANS for the council to make money by buying assets and encouraging developers to build new houses so more council tax can be collected have been criticised by Conservatives.

Cllr Simon Cooke, councillor for Bingley Rural and Conservative leader, said any moneymaking scheme must also have a "positive social impact" for residents.

He pointed to examples of other councils buying assets outside of their district, such as hotels, as questionable investment.

Cllr Cooke said: "Is this actually what public borrowing is for?

"We have the ability through public borrowing to simply generate income assets and there's really a question as to whether that's a proper function.

"The implication of all of this is that if you want to generate more money then what you need to be doing is building big houses in expensive areas. So they are going to encourage developers to build big houses on greenfield sites, not because it's the right thing to do but because it generates council tax."

The council's executive board approved an income strategy at a meeting on January 9 but Cllr Cooke has called in the decision, asking for it to be scrutinised at a meeting tomorrow.

He said: "We want to be confident that it's really been thought through and to be reassured that the council is adopting a strategy that makes sense. I have no problem if the council is working to secure a site, get income, drive regeneration and make the place better - those are entirely valid reasons."

Cllr Susan Hinchcliffe, leader of Bradford Council, said she welcomes scrutiny of the proposals and will invite opposition members to join the investment committee.

She said: "Many councils over the last few years have invested more confidently in assets which have generated an income. Bradford has been much more tentative but needs to now act so that we can make our money work harder for us.

"Bradford district has one of the lowest council tax bases in the country and national Government is cutting all our grant funding by 2020. But instead of sitting on our hands, we want to make the shrinking funds we do have go further. There’s a very clear social purpose to this. The new income we generate will be used to pay for valued local services."

She pointed to the council's purchase of the NCP car park in Hall Ings as successful investment and said "more entrepreneurial" projects are needed to make money to maintain services. Cllr Hinchcliffe added that "difficult sites" could also be made available for new homes.