WAVERLEY councillors have given officers the green light to pursue two further £1 million-plus “investment opportunities” - despite further concerns by opposition and Tory councillors that the council is “standing on the edge of a cliff”.

The borough council’s decision-making executive committee signed off a new ‘investment strategy’ in October 2016 to invest millions of pounds of borrowed money in property to help offset the funding shortfall caused by cuts to the council’s government grant.

As a consequence, Waverley now owns and manages more than 50 properties that generate an annual income of £1.2 million - including the £2.41 million Enterprise Centre in Farnham’s Coxbridge Business Park.

On Monday this week, a ‘special’ meeting of the executive followed by an ‘extraordinary’ meeting of the full council was held to give officers the authority to negotiate on two further possible acquisitions.

Both meetings were held behind closed doors, but a council spokesman said afterwards: “At last night’s meetings, councillors agreed to give authority to officers to negotiate on two further investment opportunities. However, this does not guarantee that the council will be successful in securing the properties.

“To give any further information at this time could compromise the council’s ability to negotiate the best return for its residents.”

Jerry Hyman, the leader of Waverley’s opposition Farnham Residents party, has consistently questioned the wisdom of Waverley acting as a property investor, and repeated his concerns at last week’s meeting of the council’s overview and scrutiny committee.

Mr Hyman said residents are becoming increasingly sceptical about the prospect of the council property speculating, but was interrupted by the committee’s stand-in Tory chairman Mike Band after relating the issue to the Brightwells scheme.

Conservative councillor Stewart Stennett also expressed concerns, however, commenting that the council’s investment strategy “frightens me to death” and adding that Waverley is “standing on the edge of a cliff”.

The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, is expected to unveil tough new rules on council investing next month, amid mounting Government concern that a crash in property values could plunge stretched local authority balance sheets into crisis.