Calls for the council to sell off some of its 3,000 properties have been rebuffed by local authority chiefs.

Members of the opposition urged the council to sell “underperforming assets” to “bail itself and Enfield taxpayers out”.

The calls come after the Chancellor said council’s will be able to keep 100 per cent of receipts from sale of property in the spending review.

Councillor Ertan Hurer, Enfield Conservatives’ finance spokesman, said: “Enfield Council’s property portfolio is vast.

“Whilst a good percentage of it will not be suitable for sale it is clear that some of the commercial and rural assets are poorly managed, do not bring in anywhere the levels of revenue they should and would be better off sold.”

The opposition also questioned the £3.5 million purchase of Sloemans Farm and claimed the council is in a “perilous” position because of the current authority.

Cllr Hurer added: “Thanks to spending six years burying their heads in the sand Enfield’s Labour-run council has mounting debts and projected budget overspends.

“They will cry wolf about cuts but the reality is that across London Councils of all political persuasions do not find themselves in such a perilous situation.”

However, Cllr Doug Taylor, leader of the council, labelled the Conservatives as “mischievous” and “misguided”.

He told the Enfield Independent: “We only have to look at the Conservative Lord Porter’s comments, who states further cuts will push council’s over the edge.

“We cannot sell all our properties because that includes schools, park bandstands and toilets.

“I am all in favour of selling off properties that we do not need. But to say that would wipe out our debt is simply not true.

“This is an attempt to obscure the fact that the government is making cuts to make things worse for the local authority.”