The coalition has created a dangerous void by scrapping asset management targets for councils, a senior adviser at the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy has warned.

Speaking today at the Association of Chief Estates Surveyors autumn conference, CIPFA’s Chris Brain said the government’s scrapping of Comprehensive Area Assessments (CAAs) had created a “real risk” to effective asset management in local authorities.

CAAs were a set of targets which the Audit Commission used to impose a duty on local authorities to follow best practice in how they manage their assets.

However, both the targets and the body have been scrapped. Brain said councils now have little incentive to make their property more effective or efficient.

“In the past ten years, there’s always been something to challenge us and move us on. We’ve got nobody providing that challenge now. “People did actually value it and there’s a real risk that the strategic side of asset management will stop because people will just go back to doing their day jobs.”

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